Utilization of mental health services over a given period.

The utilization of the mental health services was studied over a 2-year period for a cohort of 211 consecutively admitted patients from a catchment area in Oslo. A cumulative index for service consumption showed that 10% of the patients used 75% of the service resources. A bi-variate and a multi-variate analysis showed how psychopathology and sociodemographic factors contributed to the degree of service consumption.