Low socio-economic status (SES) is associated with mental disorders and involuntary admission, but the extent to which those associations change over time is unknown.

We aim to investigate (1) to what extent SES is a predictor of initiation of involuntary admission, (2) multivariate predictive associations between mental disorders and involuntary admission, and (3) evolutions of (1) and (2) between 2000 and 2010. Using both bivariate and multivariate models, we will present time trends in the associations between SES and involuntary admission, using mental disorders and service use as covariates.

Data stem from a large epidemiological study on psychiatric emergencies in the University Hospital of Leuven, Belgium. all patients presenting to the psychiatric emergency room were systematically monitored in terms of sociodemographic factors, presenting problems, mental disorders, and service use variables. the subset of all consecutive patients who were involuntary admitted from the emergency room between 2000 and 2010 (N = 1,053) was analysed.

We found an increased rate of involuntary admitted patients between 2000 and 2010 (p = .0140). the number of employed patients decreased significantly (from 29.6% to 15.8%). This was also the case, although to a lesser extent, for those who were living together (from 46.9% to 40.0%). More fine-grained results, SES estimates and associations with mental disorders will be presented.

Our data suggest a significant increase of the number of involuntary admissions, together with differences in SES patterns. Implications on both the clinical and the policy level will be discussed.