[Mental disorders in hospitalized children].

The authors made a statistical analysis of 1491 case histories in children aged 4-14 years treated for various psychotic disorders at a mental hospital in 1992-2001. The proportion of these children remained to be relatively stable and averaged 14.2% of the total number of inpatients. Throughout the 10-year follow-up, among children with psychoses, boys were prevalent: an average ratio of boys to girls being 3.4:1. In Saint Petersburg, there has been recently a steady reduction in the number of children with psychosis admitted to hospitals, the number patients treated in the outpatient setting being on the increase. At the same time the rates of rehospitalizations are also on the rise of patients mainly with severest psychoses. In the past 10 years, Saint Petersburg has been a town of a steady rise in the number of disabled individuals due to mental diseases among children with schizophrenia and dementia admitted to the hospital.