• acute care
• liaison psychiatry
• retrospective

This retrospective cohort study was conducted as a collaborative effort between the Liaison Psychiatry Unit and two Acute Care wards at the Hospital of Pisa (AOUP), where the implementation of hospital-wide computerised systems made it possible for us to construct a comprehensive database.

The data was organised using parameters from the Clinical Global Impression questionnaire, and the variables we took under consideration are: sex and age, place of birth and residence area, medical diagnosis, psychiatric diagnosis, presence/absence of agitation/delirium, therapy, previous psychiatric anamnesis, length of stay, clinical improvement, and C Reactive Protein.

The twofold aim of the study is to provide epidemiological data regarding the frequency of psychiatric pathology in the acute care setting, and to investigate the interaction of organic pathology and mental health issues in terms of resources (Length of Stay) and clinical outcome in comparison with patients who did not have mental health issues before their discharge.