How can we avoid unnecessary CT scanning for psychiatric patients.

We studied 135 psychiatric patients who had CT scans of the brain in addition to psychiatric mental status examination (ME), neurological examination (NE), EEG and Canter's Background Interference Procedure for the Bender Gestalt Test (BIP). The results suggested that CT scans were unnecessary in about a quarter of these patients. Those who had normal ME, NE, EEG and BIP could safely be excluded. Those who had normal ME and NE but abnormal BIP or EEG could also be excluded if they were 40 years or younger with no history of head injury.