There is an increased risk to develop mental disorder during adolescence and early adulthood. Given this vulnerability, and in order to facilitate the transition from child and adolescent to adult mental health services, specific services for this age group have been developed in the last years, focusing on accessibility and early referral of young mental patients. Our Psychiatry Department (Coimbra Hospital and University Centre, Portugal) created a specific unit for young adults in order to provide better care, in accordance with the specificities of this subpopulation. The team consists of psychiatrists, psychiatry residents, nurses and a clinical psychologist. Referred patients are under 20 years old, presenting clinically relevant psychopathology or behavior disturbances.

We aimed to characterize help-seeking outpatients regarding socio-demographic variables and its relation to depressive and anxiety symptoms.

Socio-demographic characterization was undertaken with young adult psychiatric outpatients observed during eleven months (1st January to 30th November 2015). Multivariate analyses were performed to identify a relationship among socio-demographic and psychopathology variables (assessed with the Portuguese version of Brief Symptom Inventory–53 itens).

One hundred and sixty-two outpatients were observed: 97 females (59,9%) and 65 males (40,1%), ages between 17 and 31 years old (average: 19,9; median: 20). We found a positive correlation between depressive and anxiety symptoms and the education level. A negative correlation was found between depressive and anxiety symptoms and male gender and presence of mental illness in the family.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.