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Objective: The aim of this study is to evaluate the main referral complaints, the sociodemographic data and the clinical diagnosis of the patients who have referred to our hospital. We also wanted to consider if the applicants really need emergent psychiatric care or could be treated via psychiatric outpatient clinics. Methods: Among 2000 admissions throughout august 2011; 775 of them were randomly selected and included to our study. We recorded the clinical diagnoses and sociodemographic data of the patients. Results: 54% of the patients who referred to our emergency psychiatric unit were female and 46% of them were male, 45% were single, 45% were married. 48% of the patients were graduated from primary school and 77% of them were unemployed. 61.8% of the patients were brought involuntarily by their relatives, 27.3% came voluntarily, 6.7 % were sent for the purpose of psychiatric consultation by another doctor, 2.5% came involuntarily with the police. The most common diagnoses were; 36% mood disorders, 22% psychotic disorders and 10.8% conversion disorder. We found that; 31% of the referrals were hospitalized. Conclusion: We found that; among the psychiatric emergency referrals, 72% of them were serious enough to get psychiatric emergency care and 28% could be treated in an outpatient clinic. If we consider that the referrals to the psychiatry emergency unit are mostly by the patients and their relatives request; it can be thought that informing the patients about their psychiatric diseases could minimize the congestion in the emergency units. [Anadolu Psikiyatri Derg 2015; 16(6.000): 413-419]