In clinical settings patients who frequently use emergency services are often called frequent attenders, however there is no clear definition of this term. These patients generate increased demand of resources and health’s costs.

In this line, we performed a descriptive, observational study. We studied a sample of 4824 visits in psychiatrist’s emergency of our hospital during year 2013. The 4824 visits were generated by 3026 patients.

We categorized as frequent attenders patients who had been visited in psychiatric emergency service more than 3 times (above percentile 75 of visits) during year 2013. Of these 3026 patients, we found 181 were frequent attenders (6% of total visits). Frequent attenders produced 1145 visits, representing 24% of total visits.

Although we have not found similar studies, we believe the percentage of visits generated by frequent attenders was high.

Taking account demographic profile of population, better identifying of these patients and considering their clinical profile (physical illness, psychiatric disorders, quality of life…), it could help to develop prevention and intervention strategies to reduce overuse of emergency resources. For all this, it is necessary to take into account that results obtained are not comparable between different psychiatric disorders because there are some disorders that usually generates more visits in emergencies than others. We consider it is necessary to develop further studies to determinate this implication.