Führt Multimorbidität bei älteren psychiatrischen Patienten gehäuft zu Verlegungen zwischen der Psychiatrie und somatischen Abteilungen?

Objective: Multimorbidity is an increasing challenge in geriatric medicine, also in psychiatric patients. The question arises where an adequate treatment should be carried out. Methods: This exploratory study was part of the Gerontopsychiatry study Berlin (Gepsy-B), an investigation of all admissions of older inpatients (>65 years) to a psychiatric hospital within 3 years. A total of 1266 admissions to a hospital in Berlin could be analyzed. Results: Of the patients primarily admitted to the psychiatric department, 17.4% had to be transferred to a somatic department with a preponderance of patients with higher multimorbidity (11.7 ± 3.7 vs. 9.9 ± 3.8 somatic diagnoses, U‑test p < 0.001). Of the patients 19.7% were transferred from somatic departments to the psychiatric department mainly due to delirium. They were also often multimorbid (mean number of somatic diagnoses: 11.7 + 3.7 vs. 10.3 + 3.8, U‑test p < 0.001). Conclusion: Multimorbidity results in more frequent transfer of older patients in hospital.