[Follow-up studies of psychotic patients receiving inpatient treatment or alternative forms of psychiatric care]

Abstract

An analysis of populations treated in the III Department of Psychiatry indicates that 12 years since the transformation of the organizational model of care for patients from sub-regionalized catchment area, inpatient treatment continues to be of major importance, as it was provided to over half of all referrals. Intermediate forms of care, replacing a half of the former number of psychiatric beds, were offered mainly to schizophrenic patients, with the exclusion of those with a marked agitation, psychomotor retardation, or aggressive, presenting imminent danger to self or others. At one-year follow-up J.E. Overall's scale was used to examine 39 schizophrenic patients treated at the inpatient ward, day hospital, or by a community treatment team. Patients treated at the day hospital providing an intense therapeutic program manifested a significantly more marked improvement in respect of 6 symptoms: autism, affective bluntness, guilt feelings, tension, suspiciousness, and bizarre thoughts. No significant differences were found between the compared forms of care as regards the degree of other symptoms amelioration. Thus, the day hospital turned out to be a more effective form of care in case of schizophrenic patients manifesting the cluster of symptoms listed above.