International Abstracts

107 THE INFLUENCE OF PRE-EXISTING PSYCHIATRIC ILLNESS ON RECOVERY IN BURN INJURY PATIENTS: THE IMPACT OF PSYCHOSIS AND DEPRESSION On the basis of the hypothesis that burn patients with a co-morbid psychiatric illness would have poorer outcomes in recovery from their injuries than patients with equivalent burn injuries but without preexisting psychiatric illness, 190 consecutive admissions to a burns inpatient unit in Manchester, Great Britain, were screened for the existence of a formal pre-burn disorder. A secondary aim was to investigate the effect of self-inflicted burn injury. Nine patients suffering from psychosis and eight suffering from depression were matched with 18 and 15 patients, respectively, not presenting a pre-burn psychiatric disorder as regards gender, age, burn severity, type, depth, and location. Patients with a pre-burn diagnosis spent significantly more time in hospital and more time in care until discharged from outreach; also, their burn injuries took longer to heal than the matched burn injury patients without a preexisting psychiatric illness. The time in hospital and until wound healing was greater in psychotic patients than in their controls but not between depressed patients and their matched controls. Both psychotic and depressed patients had significantly more surgery than their matched controls. Patients whose burns were self-inflicted spent significantly more time in hospital and their wounds took longer to heal. Patients with preexisting psychiatric conditions, especially psychosis, as well as those with self-inflicted injuries presented difficulties in clinical management, with higher economic costs, although staff received very little specialist training in their management.