An enquiry of the Dutch Lupus Patients Society revealed that 49 of the members had experienced psychiatric symptoms before systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) was diagnosed and 33 had sought professional psychiatric help at that stage. To determine the frequency of SLE on psychiatric admission 2,121 patients were tested for the presence of SLE-specific antinuclear and anti-DNA autoantibodies. The results suggest that SLE is a cause of admission in psychiatric hospitals at the rate of 0.1–0.2 and routine screening of antinuclear and anti-DNA antibodies on admission is not an effective diagnostic approac
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