[Descriptive examination of inpatient stays of patients with emotionally unstable personality disorder in Austria between 2001 and 2016 with special consideration of age, gender and length of stay].

BACKROUND

Emotionally unstable personality disorder (EUPD) has a high prevalence worldwide and especially in in-patient psychiatric settings, varying in age and gender. Due to the complex clinical picture, repeated admissions and high costs, health systems are facing great challenges.

METHODS

For the calculations Statistik Austria data of inpatient stays of patients with mental and behavioral disorders with special regard to EUPD as main discharge diagnosis in Austria in the period 2001-2016 were used. Included were patients with age over 14 years, admission to a psychiatric clinic in acute care and maximum length of stay of 365 days. Age, gender and length of stay were analyzed with SPSS®, evaluated in descriptive form and related to each other.

RESULTS

The prevalence of EUPD within all mental and behavioral disorders was 4.0%. Of all personality and behavioral disorders, as well as specific personality disorders, EUPD had the highest prevalence (65.3% and 79.3%). About four times more women (79.8%) than men (20.2%) received inpatient treatment. Most patients (23.1%) were admitted at the age of 20-24 years. From 40 years of age the number of admissions clearly decreased. The largest percentage of men was found to be in the age group over 45 years (27.0%) and 183-365 inpatient days (27.0%), those of women aged 15-19 (83.4%) and 0 and 14-182 inpatient days (81.4% each). The average length of stay was 13 days for women and 12 days for men. 11.3% of patients left the clinic on the day of admission, 61.2% were treated for 1-13 days, 27.2% for 14-182 days, and 0.2% for 183-365 days.