The application of life table methodology to the study of outpatient psychiatric clinic services

Abstract

In contrast to previous studies where outpatient psychiatric clinic services received by terminated patients were analyzed, in this study cohorts of admitted patients are followed to provide exact answers to questions on the duration of service and the kind of service received. This is made possible by extending the general methodology of life tables, by the use of appropriate assumptions and mathematical models, to the situation where date of entrance and date of departure of cohort members are reported in calendar months only. The methodology utilizes all available data by incorporating the experience of persons with short observation period. The duration of clinic stay is compared for a large number of patient characteristics. The cohort approach applied to the study of services and disposition provides an indication of the trend in these variables by duration of clinic experience. These findings are contrasted for two patient cohorts—children and adults. In general the data suggest that for many patients, clinic service is brief. Two major reasons accounting for this brevity of service are: (1) the clinic, to a large extent, serves as a diagnostic and referral agency, (2) a large proportion of patients, particularly adults, withdraw from service on their own initiative. Further studies to explore these and other aspects of the data are now under way.