PMID: 22351806Mar 1, 2010Paper

A medium-term follow-up study of a cohort of Chinese patients after first hospitalisation in a gazetted hospital for mania

East Asian Archives of Psychiatry : Official Journal of the Hong Kong College of Psychiatrists = Dong Ya Jing Shen Ke Xue Zhi : Xianggang Jing Shen Ke Yi Xue Yuan Qi Kan
K Y Cheung, Eva Lai-Wah Dunn

Abstract

To study the characteristics of a cohort of first-episode manic patients treated in a regional psychiatric unit in Hong Kong, to explore the predictors of re-admission, and to investigate their functional outcomes 4 years after first hospitalisation. This was a medium-term follow-up study, using retrospective review of hospital records and clinical interviews at follow-up. Forty-four Chinese patients diagnosed as having their first-episode mania were discharged from a gazetted psychiatric ward in Hong Kong between January 1999 and June 2002. Their clinical characteristics on admission and prescribed medications on discharge were investigated. Their re-admission status was charted. The patients were contacted for follow-up assessment of their functional outcome at 4 years after their first hospitalisation. In our cohort of 44 patients, their first-episode mania mostly presented in young adulthood, as significantly disturbed behaviour deemed to require compulsory admission. Nineteen (43%) of the patients were re-admitted at least once within 4 years of being discharged, 6 of whom were re-admitted more than once. Compulsory admission at the first-episode mania predicted future re-admission. Alcohol and substance abuse were associa...Continue Reading

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