Mental health admissions down.

OTTAWA -- Fewer patients diagnosed with mental illness are being admitted to hospital and those that do spend fewer days in hospital. However, hospitalization remains an important part of treatment for mental illness, particularly for individuals whose condition is severe. One in Seven persons admitted to hospitals in Canada are people diagnosed with mental illness, a report of the Canadian Institute for Health Information indicates.

The drop in hospitalization rates occurred because of

* the availability of more refined medications and medical treatments, and

* the availability of care through outpatient and community-based services

Between 1994-1995 and 2002-2003, the number of Canadians accessing inpatient mental health services declined from 715 per 100,000 population to 607 per 100,000 population. The average length of stay also dropped, from 66 days to 41 days, over the same period.

Patients with a primary diagnosis of mental illness accounted for 6% of the 2.8 million hospital stays in 2002-2003. Another 9% of hospital stays involved patients with a non-psychiatric primary diagnosis and an associated mental illness. Combined, these hospital stays accounted for one-third of the total number of days patients spent in Canadian hospitals. These stays were more than twice as long, on average, as stays not involving mental illness. The report, Hospital Mental Health Services in Canada 2002-2003, indicates that these hospitalizations tend to occur in the principal working years of a person's life mostly between the ages of 25 and 55.

Psychiatric conditions occur at different stages for men and women, usually at a younger age for men. Men diagnosed with schizophrenia are usually hospitalized in adolescence or early adulthood. Hospitalization of female schizophrenia patients is more likely to occur between the ages of 40 and 49.

The report found that the majority of these stays were related to mood disorders (34%), schizophrenic and psychotic disorders (21%) or substance-related disorders (14%).

Conditions such as depression and bipolar disorders were the most common diagnoses for mental health hospitalizations in 11 of 12 provinces and territories (excluding only the Northwest Territories, which reported a majority of substance-related disorders). Schizophrenia accounted for the longest average lengths of stay, and patients with schizophrenia were more likely than any other group to have received treatment from a psychiatric hospital, rather than a general hospital. However, mood disorders affect a greater percentage of those hospitalized for mental illness.

Between 1994-1995 and 2002-2003, the number of Canadians accessing inpatient mental health services declined from 715 per 100,000 population to 607 per 100,000 population. The average length of stay also dropped, from 66 days to 41 days, over the same period.

Over 190,000 hospital visits with over 7.7 million days stayed were attributable to a primary diagnosis of mental illness in 2002-2003. The percentage of these patients treated in general hospitals, rather than in psychiatric hospitals, increased from 82% in 1982-1983, to 87% in 2002-2003.

Nawaf Madi was the lead researcher and author of this study report.