Study of primary care referrals to Mental Health centers in adult patients in Madrid Region

Abstract

In this paper, we analyze the sociodemographic, clinical, and health care variables included in the interconsultation reports (PIC) that bring adult patients over a period of 15 days, collected consecutively in the months of March through June 2015 from three mental health centers in Madrid (Colmenar Viejo CSM, Villaverde CSM, and Vallecas Villa CSM). The statistical analysis of data, including analysis of descriptive variables and dichotomous variables, shows the following results: two thirds of referrals are transfers to psychiatry and one third are transfers to clinical psychology; mean time in the waiting list is 74 days for clinical psychology consultation and 38 days for psychiatry consultation; preferential referrals are 31%, with 28 days of mean time in waiting list, being mostly intended for psychiatry; main referred pathologies are anxiety and adaptive and depressive disorders; 46.7% of patients transferred to mental health were already taking some psychiatric medication; clinical psychology referrals involve significantly younger and less medicated patients, significantly less preferential, and with fewer diagnostic and pharmacologic specifications in the PIC than psychiatry referrals. These results are consistent with previous studies, although we have not found other studies that include more than one mental health center, or analyze qualitative information contained in the inter-consultation reports.