Psychiatric admissions among the deaf population in Denmark

Abstract

A retrospective investigation has been carried out covering the records of psychiatric disorders requiring hospitalization of adult preverbal deaf persons in Denmark during the period 1 January 1986 to 31 December 1991. The results were compared with those from a similar investigation carried out during the period 1965-69. The annual incidence rate during the investigation period was 0.5-0.8% for the adult deaf population. This rate corresponds closely to the statistics relating to hearing patients and is significantly lower than for the period 1965-69, when the incidence was three to four times that of the hearing population. During the investigation period a significant reduction in the duration of hospitalization was observed (from 12.6 weeks in 1986 to 4.2 weeks in 1991). This reduction is closely related to the earlier discharge of patients to alternative sheltered environments. A significantly larger proportion of forensic psychiatric patients (26% of admissions) was experienced, as compared with the hearing population. In comparison with previous investigations, a reduction in the number of patients with presenile/senile dementia was observed, and at the same time there was an increase in the number of psychotic patients in relation to the number of other diagnoses. The predominant causes of admissions were consistently psychotic conditions (51%) and personality disorders (30%). There is a constant large group of preverbal deaf people - in this investigation 40% of the patients - with organic disorders with psychiatric manifestations and/or perceptual and cognitive disorders.