Abstract

All patients in Norwegian psychiatric hospitals were registered in a census on 1st November 1979 and again in 1984. The article discusses the main differences between the populations at these two points in time.The total number of patients in hospitals on a given day was reduced from 6,278 to 3.841 (40%) during the five year period. The distribution of diagnoses was unchanged - half of the patients were schizophrenic, 80% diagnosed with psychosis. The number of schizophrenics in hospitals was reduced from 3,000 to 1,830.The duration of stay in hospitals was a little reduced, and the patients were younger. 60% of the patients had never been married, compared with 22% in the Norwegian population at large (age over 20 years), both about the same as in 1979.About 1,700 patients were committed to a mental hospital in 1984, compared with 3,000 patients five years earlier. Some of the reasons for this change in the number and the characteristics of patients in mental hospitals in Norway are discussed.

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