Prevalence, detection and referral of psychiatric morbidity in general medical patients.

Twenty seven per cent of medical emergency admissions were found to have diagnosable psychiatric disorders, mostly mild. Although ward staff assessed 31.1% of admissions as having emotional or psychological problems, only a minority had diagnosable psychiatric disorders. Few patients were referred for specialist psychiatric help. This partly reflected the milder nature of problems identified by ward staff, and partly indifference to psychiatry.