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The current paper evaluates psychiatric needs of voluntary admissions in a large urban psychiatric hospital through a retrospective chart review, as this research is limited within the United States. A total of 581 voluntary adult psychiatric admission charts were reviewed. Continuous variables were evaluated using an ANOVA while associations between variables were examined by an unadjusted Pearson correlation coefficient a stepwise linear regression analysis. Men were significantly more likely to have a past admission for psychiatric services (p =.016), suicidal ideation (p <.001) and test positive for substances (p <.001) than women, and were more likely to be unemployed, homeless and without insurance. Women were more likely to have a past suicide attempt and a depressive disorder. A significant relationship between gender and rationale for seeking voluntary admission (p <.001) was found. This study offers understanding of male and female voluntary admissions, and a foundation for improving treatment interventions to reduce recurrent readmissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: Many governments have publicly released healthcare data, which can be mined for insights about disease conditions, and their impact on society. Methods: We present a big-data analytics approach to investigate data in the New York Statewide Planning and Research Cooperative System (SPARCS) consisting of 20 million patient records. Findings: Whereas the age group 30–48 years exhibited an 18% decline in mental health (MH) disorders from 2009 to 2016, the age group 0–17 years showed a 5.4% increase. MH issues amongst the age group 0–17 years comprise a significant expenditure in New York State. Within this age group, we find a higher prevalence of MH disorders in females and minority populations. Westchester County has seen a 32% increase in incidences and a 41% increase in costs. Conclusions: Our approach is scalable to data from multiple government agencies and provides an independent perspective on health care issues, which can prove valuable to policy and decision-makers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]