Psychiatric consultations in a children's hospital.

One hundred and ninety-one consecutive psychiatric referrals from the medical and surgical wards of a children's hospital were studied. The referral rate approximated 2% of admission rate, and patients who were referred stayed in hospital longer than three times the average stay for all inpatients. The hospital's medical units supplied 69% of referrals and the rest came from the surgical units. The male to female ratio of admissions to hospital was 3:2, but that of referrals was 1:1 (a significant difference (P less than 0.02). Main diagnostic categories for patients under one year of age were congenital and metabolic disorders (35%), and psychosocial problems which included maltreatment and children at risk (58%). The records for patients between one and 14 years of age imply that over 50% of them had family social problems or behaviour disorder. Of patients over 14 years of age, 93% had affective disorder.