Risk of hospital readmission in patients with psychotic symptoms and a history of drug use

Introduction

Substance use is common in patients with psychotic symptomatology, especially in patients diagnosed with a first psychotic episode or schizophrenia. In both chronic psychosis and first psychotic episodes, substance abuse is associated with a worse outcome and a higher relapse rate.

Methods

For this study, a sample of n = 731 was collected, including all patients hospitalised in the Adult Hospitalisation Unit (AHU) of Psychiatry of the Hospital Clínico Universitario de Zaragoza between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2017, with a discharge diagnosis of psychotic disorder or affective disorder with psychotic symptomatology.

Results

From the analysis of the sample, the results show that 52.19% of the patients in the sample studied have a history of drug use. And, the most frequently used substance among patients with psychotic pathology is cannabis (73.71%). Likewise, patients with a history of drug use were admitted at an earlier age (35.07 ± 12.72 years) than those without a history of drug use (50.74 ± 15.08 years). In addition, drug use was more frequent in males, with a ratio of 4:1.

Conclusions

It has also been observed that patients with a history of drug use have a higher risk of hospital readmission to a psychiatric unit. In the sample analysed, cannabis was the only substance that presented statistically significant differences with respect to the risk of hospital readmission.