Abstract

SANCHEZ, Ricardo; JARAMILLO, Luis Eduardo  and  QUINTERO, Constanza. Estabilidad del Diagnostico Psiquiatríco en Pacientes de Consulta Externa. rev.colomb.psiquiatr. [online]. 2002, vol.31, n.2, pp.101-122. ISSN 0034-7450.

The present study as the first aproximation done in Colombia towards the stability of the psychiatric diagnosis. It indends to establish the frequency of this phenomenon in an outpatient service, taking into account the type of clinical entity, the age and the gender as possible variables that affect the stability of the psychiatric diagnosis. Objectives : To establish the time that the diagnosis remain unchanged in psychiatric outpatients. To establish the probability of changing the diagnosis in a group of psychiatric outpatient. To determine which variables influence the time that the psychiatric diagnosis remain unchanged. Design: Retrospective cohort study with patients evalued during 1997 in the psychiatric outpatient service of the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Bogotá. Measurements where made of the change of the index diagnosis, time that the diagnosis remains unchanged, and independent variables: age, gender, number of visits, psychiatric diagnosis, comorbidity. Divariate associations and survival analysis were made. Results: The characteristics of the demographic variables and of the diagnosis studied in this group correspond with those described in the literature: depressive, anxiety and adjustment disorders are more frequent in women; psychotic and substance use disorders are more frequent in men: patients with organic and depressive disorders are older. The change in diagnosis was present in 11.01% of the cases studied, with an incidende rate of 0.039 changes per month. The function of risk of change of diagnosis has a Weibull distribution. It was found that the variables that favor stability of diagnosis were: having a bipolar illness, having a psychotic disorder and being older than 60 years of age.

Keywords : Psychiatric diagnosis; stability on time.

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