Profiling frequent presenters to the emergency department for mental health complaints: socio-demographic, clinical, and service use characteristics.

Background: A small subset of individuals makes a disproportionate number of ED visits for mental health complaints.

Study Objectives: To explore the population profile and associated socio-demographic, clinical, and service use factors of individuals who make frequent visits (5+ annually) to hospital EDs for mental health complaints.

Methods: Case-control study using electronic health record data.

Results: Frequent presenters represented 3% of mental health ED patients and accounted for 18% of visits. Several factors were significantly associated with frequent ED use, including limited social support, documented personality disorder/traits, regular antipsychotic use, self-reported alcohol use, and having multiple referral sources.