Only half of youth in ER for self-harm get mental disorder diagnosis.(emergency rooms)

In what is apparently the first nationally-based study on the subject, researchers have found that young people seen in emergency rooms for deliberately harming themselves are given a mental disorder diagnosis only about half of the time. That compares to findings in community studies suggesting that up to 91 percent of young people who attempt suicide have mental disorders.

The study, reported in the October Archives of General Psychiatry, analyzed data from the large National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey sponsored by the National Center for Health Statistics. That effort involved hospital staff filling out forms on random emergency room visits.

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