To evaluate the features of Frequent-Attenders (FAs) admitted to an Acute Psychiatric Unit of a general hospital in Bologna, Northern Italy.

Persons admitted between January 2008-June 2009 (N=110) were randomly selected thanks to the Hospital Information System. All participants’ admissions in the indexed period were recorded, the case-history of the first admission was reviewed gathering socio-demographic and clinical information. The International Classification of Disease (ICD-10) was used for diagnosis. FAs were defined for 3 or more admissions within 18 months (Botha et al. 2009).

Almost one out of three patients was a FA (N=34; 30.9%). The mean number of admission for each subject being 5.6±3.4 for an average length of stay of 56.2±62.1 days. In comparison to single users, FAs were more frequently men (67.6% vs. 46.1%; p=0.029), unemployed (79.4% vs. 29.2%; p< 0.001) and living in social-health facilities (29.4% vs. 9.5%; p< 0.024). FAs and common users were not different concerning compulsory/voluntary admission. Schizophrenia and other Psychotic Disorders were predominant among FAs (44.1%), followed by Substance Use and Personality Disorders (14.7%), but no differences were detectable between cases and controls in terms of discharge diagnoses. Conversely, the prevalence of concomitant organic diseases was higher in FAs (50% vs. 27.6%; p=0.020).Finally, the results of the Logistic Regression Model estimating Odds Ratios and 95% Confidence Intervals suggested that FAs had a lower insight/compliance (2.15; 2.50-29.66; p=0.001).

FAs have a higher mental-social disability. A targeted treatment might reduce the frequency of hospitalization.