Er behandling af skizofreni en hospitalsopgave?

Abstract

On the basis of the principle that psychiatric patients have the right to be treated in the least restrictive setting appropriate to their needs and to reduce the expenses connected with r treatment of psychiatric patients, deinstitutionalization has been accelerated. Several studies elucidating the effect of this decentralization and the development of community psychiatry show that even though most patients discharged from psychiatric hospitals to various forms of sheltered homes prefer to live outside the hospital, they often live a miserable life in social institutions, with frequent readmissions to the hospital. The groups with the best outcome after discharge are the gerontopsychiatric and the mentally retarded patients. A bedrock of psychiatric illness exists which will always need inpatient care however comprehensive the community resources may be. If community psychiatry is established to serve the group of chronic psychotic patients, it is necessary to pursue an active policy that facilitates th...