Does psychiatric comorbidity increase the length of stay in general hospitals?

Mental Distress among Patients Admitted in Gondar University Hospital: A Cross Sectional Institution Based Study

“…Patients who stayed three to four weeks in the hospital were more than two times more likely having mental distress than those stayed less than one week. It was similar to studies conducted in Austria investigated the course of illness in patients staying in the hospital for more than four weeks prevalence of all psychiatric disorders increased [23].…”

“…It also supported the idea that more previous non psychiatric treatment and admission predicted the presence of psychiatric disorder in Austria [23]. Patients who stayed three to four weeks in the hospital were more than two times more likely having mental distress than those stayed less than one week.…”

“…It was slightly higher than studies conducted in Canada acutely ill medical inpatients (27.2), Austria at admission the prevalence of psychiatric disorder (46%), Vienna and Tyrol medical, surgical and gynecological wards (28.1%), Germany general hospital inpatients range from (41.3%-46.5%), seven medical and surgical wards of Verona Italy (28.7%), in Kuwait medical and surgical in patients (41.4%), elderly patients admitted to nonpsychiatric wards of Nigeria (45.3%), in Uganda (42.2%), Ethiopia Tb patients' non co infected with HIV/AIDS (46.7%). This difference may be chronic medical illnesses and trauma patients included in our study, differences in both screening and diagnostic tools, population studied also other factors [19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29].…”

Comparison of clinical profiles and treatment outcomes between vagrant and non-vagrant mentally ill patients in a specialist neuropsychiatric hospital in Nigeria

“…The factors found to significantly prolong the time to improvement were old age, higher educational status, single marital status, unemployment, and vagrancy. In contrast to previous studies [11][12][13][14] , the dual diagnosis of schizophrenia and substance abuse disorders did not significantly increase the length of stay in this study. These factors are common to the vagrant patients, and they may be acting as confounding variables in the association between time to improvement and vagrant status.…”

“…However, studies relying on clinical judgement have found lower rates of chronic mental illness among the homeless. [10][11][12] Physical co-morbidities were significantly higher in the vagrant group of patients, which may reflect a lack physical security, street violence, poor diet, and unhygienic conditions. Indeed, these patients were prone to a myriad of infections and physical injuries.…”