Medical disorders among patients admitted to a public-sector psychiatric inpatient unit.

Active and important physical disorders are common among public-sector psychiatric patients and are frequently undetected. A total of 289 patients who were consecutively admitted to a public psychiatric hospital were screened for physical disorders and given medical evaluations when screening results suggested an active and important physical disorder. Twenty-nine percent of the patients had such disorders. Of the 119 disorders detected, 24 (20 percent) were newly diagnosed for 23 patients (8 percent). Physical disorders that may have caused or exacerbated patients' psychiatric symptoms affected 2 percent and 3.5 percent of the patients, respectively. Patients admitted to psychiatric inpatient units should be carefully evaluated for physical disease.