[Mental decompensation during vacation abroad].
To inventory psychiatric syndromes occurring during holidays and reported to an alarm centre. Descriptive. Office of SOS-International Amsterdam. The files of 393 insured travellers who approached the alarm centre with psychiatric problems between January 1985 and January 1990 were studied. All diagnoses were reconstructed and classified according to DSM-III-R. Data of 380 patients could be retrieved. The mean age of the 154 men was 36, of the 226 women 37 years. The reports of psychiatric decompensation came from 43 different countries: 43.5% of them from Spain and Greece. On the average the reports came 10.2 days after the start of the holidays. 55% travelled alone and 45% in a group. Paranoid disorder was the most frequent diagnosis (21.2%). Schizophrenia was diagnosed in 8.4%. In 65% of all cases the disorder was a relapse. The relapse rate was comparable to those of earlier reports. Many patients travelled alone. The longer the distance travelled, the greater the probability that people turn to an alarm centre for help. Patients with a schizophrenic disorder are less successful in reaching their holiday destination.