Ramón y Cajal Hospital is the reference hospital for area 4 (Madrid), which covers a population of more than 540.000 people. The psychiatric emergencies are one of the most frequent demands at the Emergency Department (ER)

• • Analysis of the cause of psychiatric demand and how it is made: who asks for help and who sends the patient to the hospital.

• • Analysis of the syndromic diagnosis, derivation and therapeutical attitude at discharge.

With data from sample of 145 patients attended by the emergency psychiatry staff between the 15th - 30th August 2008, we performed a descriptive analysis using SSPS 15.0 version in Spanish

• • Most common reason of consultation was nervousness (22%), being the patient the one who demanded evaluation (31,5%). Less commonly, the patient was sent from the local Mental Health Center (1,37%). Patients usually come accompanied by relatives (41%).

• • The most frequent syndromic diagnosis at discharge was “affective disorder” (23%),being usually derived to the local Mental Health Center (54%). Modifying the previous treatment after the consultation (37%) was nearly as frequent as leaving the previous one (35%).Starting a new treatment after consultation at the ER was rare (14%).

The profile of the patient attended by the psychiatry staff on duty in our hospital, is a patient who demands psychiatric evaluation, comes accompanied by relatives, consults for nervousness, is discharged with a diagnosis included in the spectrum of “affective disorders”, and is derived to the local Mental Health Center.