Psychological distress in medical patients 30 days following an emergency department admission: results from a prospective, observational study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Psychological distress in medical patients admitted to the emergency department (ED) is not well studied. Our aim was to investigate the extent of psychological distress in a broad and unselected medical patient sample 30 days after ED admission and its association with socio-demographic and clinical variables.

Method

We used data from a prospective observational cohort study including 1575 consecutive adult medical patients presenting to the ED with acute somatic conditions. Outcome variables were patient's psychological distress measured by the 4-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4) and self-rated health assessed 30 days after ED admission using telephone interviews. Risk factors included socio-demographic variables (e.g. gender, marital status), clinical p

SUBMITTER: Faessler L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4997757 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature