Psychiatric disorders are highly common. About one in four Austrians will suffer from a psychiatric disorder at some point in the life. These include disorders such as affective disorders (depression, mania), anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, dementia, delirium, substance use disorders, or personality disorders. Psychiatric disorders are caused by the conjunction of various factors including, but not limited to, biological predisposition, physical disorders, stress and trauma.

As is the case with physical disorders, most psychiatric disorders can be treated on an outpatient basis. The Department of Psychiatry provides care to inpatients and outpatients. Mental health issues are treated in a diagnosis-specific manner, effective and specialized treatments are available for all disorders. Planning psychiatric care takes scientific information on the relevant disorder, as well as symptoms and course of disease, information from additional diagnostic measures, and a patient’s personal experience into account.

Depending on the patient and their course of disease (and only if the patient consents), contact may be made with the patient’s family or social environment. In general, discussion with persons of relevance to a patient allow us to hone our diagnoses and improve outcomes.

In addition to diagnostics according to ICD-10, patients receive psychiatric and psychotherapeutic care. Somatic disorders are treated, when relevant, in collaboration with other departments at the General Hospital of Vienna. Particularly complex cases are treated at the psychiatric intermediate care ward 04C.