Characteristics of patients referred by police to a psychiatric emergency service.

chotic individuals, more likely to involve persons with a “mild mental disorder,” and less likely to result in admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit. In contrast, Way and colleagues (1) found that police referrals were more often due to dangerous behavior and that such patients had mental disabilities that were just as serious as those of other patients, required more time in the emergency setting, and were more often admitted to an inpatient psychiatric unit. We examined differences between patients referred by police to a large tertiary hospital in upstate New York and those referred to the hospital by other sources. We compared the reports of police officers in the field with subsequent evaluations of the same patients by clinicians in the psychiatric emergency service. We also compared patients who were referred by police with a group of patients who had been referred by other sources, matched by day of presentation to the psychiatric emergency service. Data evaluated included age, sex, town of residence, marital status, details of presenting symptoms, level of functional impairment, diagnosis, and family history as well as frequency of violence, suicidal behavior, substance abuse or intoxication, need for restraint, need for psychotropic medication, and admission to an inpatient psychiatric unit.