There seems to be an upsurge in psychiatric admissions related to female patients with borderline personality disorder. Does this reflect the actual trend?

Study of the typology of admission into acute psychiatric wards for an adult population.

To understand the trend of actual psychopathology in the general population admitted into psychiatric wards.

A total population of 197 psychiatric admissions was diagnosed in the period March 2015–March 2016 in a general psychiatric ward in the United Kingdom. The four major diagnostic categories were: personality disorder (mostly inclusive of borderline p.d.) (n = 77), paranoid schizophrenia (n = 24), schizoaffective (n = 11) and other (n = 82). Meta-analysis of the population analyzed the results. Gender was divided into 82 male and 125 female admissions, with 181 informal admissions, 68 under Sections of the Mental Health Act, and 5 under recall from Community Treatment Order.

Meta-analysis (Fig. 1) of the whole study showed a statistically significant heterogeneity in results with Tau squared t2 = 0.031, Cochrane's Q (df = 3) = 141.90, P < .001, and I2 = 97.87, a prevalence of borderline personality disorder over other diagnoses; a prevalence of female over male admissions, (t2 = .02, Q (df = 1) = 18.67, P < .001, I2 = 94.64), and a prevalence of patients admitted informally (t2 = 0.131, Q (df = 2) = 586.366, P < .001, I2 = 99.65).

The prevailing population of acute psychiatric wards for the general adult population is females who are admitted informally with diagnosis of borderline personality disorder.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.