A retrospective cohort study of falls in a psychiatric inpatient setting.

Several factors increase the psychiatric inpatient's risk of falling, including side effects of medications and mental disorders that decrease awareness of environmental hazards. In this study, rates of falling were determined for a cohort of 4,156 psychiatric inpatients over 34 months. A total of 494 falls occurred among 376 patients. Thirty-five percent of the patients who fell required medical or nursing intervention. Forty-eight percent of the falls occurred in the over-60 age group. When other results were adjusted for age, neither gender nor diagnosis was found to increase the risk of falling, except for depressed patients under 20 years old, who were at less risk, and psychotic patients in their 60s, who were at greater risk. The authors discuss the costs of falls and preventive efforts instituted in their setting.