Psychiatric crisis refers to a disruption in psychic functioning in relation to stressful events. It is characterized by symptoms and the inability to recover without help. Brief inpatient psychiatric intervention may be indicated, notably to protect from suicidal risk. This thesis objectives are to characterize individuals in crisis, including a wide range of risk factors, and to examine the benefits of assessing protective factors, with a particular focus on young adults. The results show few differences between the clinical characteristics of young and middle-aged adults. They indicate that interpersonal, social, and circumstantial information routinely collected during a crisis intervention has poor predictive power for the risk of recurrence. They suggest that Resilience and Reasons For Living are weaker among people in crisis than in a community sample. Women and young adults are at greater risk of recurrence, and young adults more exposed to life stress and with less protective factors.