Republican Convention Stress Sending Record Number of Psychiatric Patients to Hospitals

Michelle Charlesworth reports from St. Vincents Hospital in Greenwich Village.

Psychiatric hospitals have become filled over the past week. And the outpatient numbers for psychiatric patients are even higher. And that's not all, Web sites for people with anxiety issues are being swamped.

Barricades, traffic, detours, increased stress, cops, guns, sirens, changed routines ... and unpleasant surprises. For instance, while we were out reporting this very story, a group of police detoured us because of a suspicious package.

Dr. Spencer Eth, St. Vincent's Hospital: "This morning, every single one of our psychiatric beds was filled, and we had four people in the emergency room who we wanted to admit, but didn't have a bed for here."

In the entire St. Vincent's hospital system, all 370 psychiatric beds are filled.

Dr. Spencer Eth has been with St. Vincent's for eight years, and he has never seen hospitals full to capacity with psychiatric patients in August.

Dr. Spencer Eth: "People who are suffering from severe depression, who may be psychotic and paranoid, these kinds of situations -- the situation in New York right now -- is likely to be an exacerbating factor."

Lisa Orloff, septemberspace.org: "There are certain triggers that people have, whether it be a fire engine siren ..."

... or seeing police everywhere.

Lisa Orloff is with a group that councils people post 9/11.

Lisa Orloff: "Some of them are afraid that there's going to be another terrorist attack. A lot of them are feeling very, very inconvenienced, and they're feeling as if they're not empowered."

She says hits on her group's Web site have quadrupled to more than a million this week, since the preparations for the Republican Convention went into overdrive.

Dr. Spencer Eth: "It's not the Republicans, don't get me wrong. It's the ... heavily-armed police presence that's so scary. Because it's a constant reminder that we live in a time of danger and increased threat."

So if the symptoms are being triggered by the security surrounding the convention, the root of the problem is still 9/11.

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/gopcon/wabc_083104_psychbeds.html