Consultation psychiatry in an Italian general hospital: a report on 500 referrals.

Five-hundred consecutive referrals to the psychiatric consultation service at the University of Padua School of Medicine have been reviewed. In 69% of cases concurrent physical and psychiatric disorders were reported. There was a prevalence of females, working class patients, and individuals with limited schooling. Depression was the most common psychiatric disorder in all classes of organic disease and accounted for 37% of all psychiatric diagnoses, followed by anxiety neurosis (18.6%) and drug dependence (13.8%). In 10.8% of cases no psychiatric diagnosis was made.