Routine skull films in hospitalized psychiatric patients.

Skull films were taken routinely for a sample consisting of all inpatients at a psychiatric facility over a 5-year period (N = 2,943). The skull series revealed some abnormalities in 17.3% of the patients and significant abnormalities in 2.4%. The author concludes that the results of this trial do not justify routine skull films for psychiatric patients in the absence of neurological symptoms.