Computed tomography in psychiatric patients.

In a retrospective study of 100 consecutive adult psychiatric patients referred for computed tomography (CT) for suspected intracranial lesions, abnormalities were found in 61%. Of these, 23% had focal lesions significantly associated with alcohol abuse, previous craniocerebral trauma and focal neurological signs. Detection of focal lesions influenced patient management in over half the cases. No single factor was able to predict all patients with focal lesions and the correlation between electroencephalogram and CT results was weak. If criteria for CT in psychiatric patients are too restrictive, some cases of occult brain disease may escape detection.