Short vs Long Hospitalization: A Prospective Controlled Study

Abstract

• A controlled, prospective study examined the relative effectiveness of short-term versus long-term psychiatric hospitalization. The results of a two-year follow-up of a sample of 141 schizophrenic patients are reported here. The differences favoring long-term subjects that were apparent at one year postadmission had decreased by two years postadmission. However, there appears to be an interaction between prehospital functioning and length of hospital stay, with subjects who had good prehospital functioning doing better at two years when assigned to long-term hospitalization. Subjects with poor prehospital functioning did about equally well, regardless of length of stay, and may even have showed some tendency to do better with a shorter hospital stay. This reversal of effect was more prominent for women, although this sex difference was not statistically significant.