Rates of admission to six Northern Ireland psychiatric hospitals of patients with primary alcohol-related diagnoses.

The rate of admissions to psychiatric hospitals of patients with primary alcohol-related diagnoses (PARD) has increased from 1971 to 1983 and they now account for 19.7% of all admissions. There is a wide variation in admission rates between hospitals, and the use of the Mental Health (NI) Act 1961 to admit these patients formally varies up to twelvefold.