The demand for extramural psychiatric intervention in a community-based service.

Using a psychiatric case register, patients who had extramural contacts with the South-Verona Community Psychiatric Service in 1983 (N = 549) were selected for this study and followed-up for 3 years, from the date of their first 1983 contact. Out of the total number of extramural contacts made in 3 years (N = 12,429) 16% were unplanned (drop-in) contacts. A linear-logistic model was used to investigate the joint effects of sociodemographic and clinical variables on the frequency of unplanned extramural contacts. The model to fit the data was complex, confirming that many interactions among the variables considered in the study significantly affect the probability of using the community services on an urgent or unplanned basis.