Current circumstances and patients receiving counseling and psychiatric treatment at a general hospital

Abstract

Members of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces, their families, and outside patients all attend the Self-Defense Forces Yokosuka Hospital for general hospital treatment. We counted the numbers and analyzed the characteristics of the patients who received counseling and psychiatric services at our hospital for one year from October 2010. The number of new patients for counseling was 92 in total, and the number who returned for review was 729. The most frequent chief complaint at the first consultation was “poor mental condition” in 48.9%, followed by “trouble with work” in the second place at 37.0%. The total number of new psychiatric patients was 204, and the number of patients who returned to the clinic for review was 2489. The most frequent diagnosis of new psychiatric patients was neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (F4) at 59.3%, while the second most frequent diagnosis was mood disorders (F3) at 23.5%. Half of the psychiatric patients were suffering from adjustment disorder, and this is considered to be a feature of general hospital psychiatry. In the future, we hope to better treat maladjustment to work, strengthen rehabilitation support, and improve the suitability of medical treatment for individual patients.