A socio-psychiatric profile of emergency service patients.

A study of patients using the psychiatric emergency services of the Royal Ottawa Hospital was undertaken to determine their demographic and clinical characteristics, correlations between the two and comparisons with other studies. Special clinical forms of every fifth patient seen were analyzed and the data presented. These data are useful in the planning of and establishing and operating a psychiatric emergency service with an attached short-term inpatient unit, as well as assessing the feasibility and value of crisis intervention and brief psychotherapy in treating patients quickly.