Descripción del uso de la licencia médica psiquiátrica en un servicio especializado de atención ambulatoria

objectives: to characterize sick leaves prescription in a specialized psychiatric service. methods: we recorded all of psychiatric attentions as well as all of sick-leaves prescribed during a three months period (july to september, 2009). results: 3,105 attentions were done, whit a 12,7% (399 attentions) of them resulting in a sick-leave prescription, corresponding to 228 out-patients. we discarded 16 sick-leaves because incomplete information. 184 (48%) sick-leaves were prescribed in a first visit, 190 (49,6%) were a prolongation of a previous sick-leave prescription, and 9 (2,3%) were prescribed after a working period posterior to a previous rest. affective disorder were the most frequent diagnosis observed in sick-leave prescription (78,1%), being more frequent in women (68,9). the mean of rest was 25,5 ± 20 days with a median of 15 days. discussion: a 12,7% of psychiatric attention generated a sick-leave prescription. severity of disorders seen in a specialized psychiatric service could explain this finding. our results confirm affective disorders are the principal cause of sick-leave prescription. this study add technical knowledge about feature and uses of psychiatric sick-leaves in chile.