Aalia Akhtar Hayat, Muhammad Munir Ahmed, Fareed Aslam Minhas.
Patients leaving against medical advice: an inpatient psychiatric hospital-based study.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;23(5):342-6.

Objective:To determine the frequency of patients leaving against medical advice (LAMA) in an inpatient psychiatric facility in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Study Design: Descriptive cross-sectional study. Place and Duration of Study: Institute of Psychiatry, Benazir Bhutto Hospital, Rawalpindi, from August 2010 to February 2011. Methodology: Patients who got admitted during study period irrespective of duration of illness and mode of admission were recruited through non-probability consecutive sampling and followed till discharge to determine their mode of leaving hospital. A thirteen-item proforma was developed and information was obtained on demographic, socioeconomic, patient related and disease related variables. Descriptive statistics were calculated on SPSS 14. Results: The total number (n) of participants was 246. Among the participants, 96 (39%) left against medical advice (LAMA) whereas 150 (61%) left on regular discharge on physician\'s advice. Frequency of patients who left against medical advice was found to be more in males (63.5%), younger age groups (21 – 30 years), lesser educated (more than half were under matric) and with the ICD-10 diagnosis of substance abuse (23.9%). About half of patients who LAMA had a prior history of psychiatric illness and a significant number (37.5%) had a history of previous psychiatric admission. Conclusion: Leaving against medical advice is a frequent problem in psychiatric inpatients and is a matter of great concern for the treating doctors.

PakMediNet -Pakistan's largest Database of Pakistani Medical Journals - http://www.pakmedinet.com