The Study of Disease Duration as a Risk Factor for the Development of Hospitalism in Elderly Psychiatric Patients

Abstract

The phenomenon of hospitalism in elderly patients with mental disorders is an extremely important clinical, social, and economic problem. A total of 155 geronto-psychiatric patients were examined; 75 of them showed signs of hospitalism and 80 were the control group. A subgroup of patients with signs of hospitalism and short disease duration was selected. The duration of their inpatient treatment was 133.5 ± 42.24 days (72.11 ± 37.11 days in the respective control subgroup, p < 0.05). This subgroup was characterized by greater impulsivity as a personality trait and less adaptive coping strategies as compared to patients without hospitalism. In the subgroup of patients with signs of hospitalism and longer disease duration, the hospitalism-associated factors proved to be higher anxiety and depression in the current psychoemotional state, lower manifestation of adaptive cognitive coping, and lower disease sensitivity (all differences are significant at p < 0.05) against a longer stay in hospital as compared to patients with an analogous disease duration without hospitalism (249.67 ± 3.56 and 79.58 ± 39.52 days, respectively, p < 0.05).