COMPARISON OF THE CLINICAL EFFECTIVENESS OF “SHORT” VERSUS “LONG” STAY PSYCHIATRIC HOSPITALIZATION

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Abstract
Patients (173) were randomly assigned to long-term (LT: mean 179 days) or short-term (ST: mean 89 days) hospitalization in an intensive treatment psychiatric hospital. In-hospital data and partial 3 yr posthospital follow-up results were published previously. Follow-up results in the areas of psychopathology and social adjustment as evaluated by patient and relative questionnaires is reported. Few differences between LT and ST patients on the patient questionnaires and few differences in social adjustment on the relative questionnaires were seen but the relative questionnaires showed the LT patients to have significantly less psychopathology than did the ST patients. LT patients had more private psychotherapy after discharge; holding private therapy constant eliminated the LT-ST differences. The combination of LT hospitalization and more private therapy after discharge was evaluated as superior by the relative questionnaires. Possibly LT hospitalization helped by convincing the patient of the need for LT psychiatric care after discharge. The superior benefit for LT patients, while statistically significant, was relatively slight clinically. Further analyses are underway to delineate subgroups of patients preferentially helped by LT or ST hospitalization.