Hospital stays for kids with psych issues up

Hospitalizations of fewer than 30 days for acute psychiatric conditions have increased substantially for children and teens nationwide, a Long Island study has found.

The rate of young people hospitalized for a host of conditions, ranging from bipolar disorder to schizophrenia, outpaced older adults admitted for comparably difficult diagnoses, according to the research.

Dr. Joseph Blader, author of the analysis published Friday in the Archives of General Psychiatry, said it's unclear why young people are being increasingly hospitalized for psychiatric disorders.

"Despite increased spending in mental health care for prescription drugs, medications don't appear to have stanched the need for high-intensity inpatient services," said Blader, an assistant professor at Stony Brook University School of Medicine.

The trend, he said, could spur a rethinking of how health care dollars are spent.

The investigation examined hospital discharge data from 1996 to 2007 culled from a vast government database.

Inpatient treatment, he found, rose 81 percent for children -- from 156 per 100,000 in 1996 to 283 per 100,000 in 2007. For teens, the increase was nearly 42 percent; 683.6 per 100,000 in 1996 to 969 per 100,000 in 2007.

The adult hospitalization rate rose by only 8 percent, but for people 65 and older it declined by 17.5 percent.

Dr. Victor Fornari, who is not involved in the research, wonders whether economic forces explain the trend.

"The study talks about a greater number of short stays," said Fornari, director of child and adolescent psychiatry at Zucker Hillside Hospital in Queens.

Over the past 20 years, the length of stay in hospitals has been decreasing because of managed care, he said.