Number Of Previous Admissions Research Articles

Characteristics of attenders and non-attenders at an asthma education programme.

A controlled trial of asthma education was conducted but only 51 out of 164 eligible patients participated. Differences between subjects who participated in the trial and those who expressed initial interest but subsequently declined were studied. Women, non-smokers, and those whose attending physician was concerned in the study were significantly more likely to attend the programme. Higher socioeconomic status was associated with greater attendance, but this did not reach significance. Psychosocial malfunctioning due to asthma was also associated with attendance, but this was not significant when sex and education level were taken into account. There was no difference between attenders and non-attenders with respect to age, number of previous admissions, airway function, self reported asthma severity, knowledge about asthma, and self management practices. The results suggest that many asthmatic patients recovering from a severe exacerbation of airflow obstruction will not participate in hospital based health education programmes. Alternative strategies may be required to improve the self management behaviour of these patients.

Characteristics of Patients who Receive Electroconvulsive Therapy

Case records of all non-forensic psychiatric admissions (n = 5,729), over a three year period, to all the inpatient psychiatric facilities, within one geographic area were studied on a number of demographic, clinical, and treatment characteristics. Patients who had received E.C.T. were compared with those who did not receive tis treatment. The results showed that a high proportion (21%) had received E.C.T. In comparison with patients not receiving E.C.T., E.C.T. recipients were significantly older, more often female, had greater number of previous admissions, greater incidence of violent behaviour, and longer stays in hospital. E.C.T. patients did not differ from others on social class, education, and marital status, nor was E.C.T. prescribed more often to patients who had demonstrated suicidal behaviour, even if they had a diagnosis of depression. E.C.T. and non E.C.T. patients received an equal number of psychotropic drugs.

Shortening the Speech Sounds Perception Test.

Statistical means of shortening the Speech Sounds Perception Test were examined. Stepwise multiple regression analyses indicated that a 30-item version correlated quite highly with the 60-item version. Group means for representative clinical groups were presented, but no strong differences emerged using either version. Inclusion of length of stay and number of previous admissions as covariates did little to enhance the predictive validity of either form. Finally, the correlation of the 30-item test with demographic variables showed that age correlated most, followed by occupational status. these results were interpreted as indicating that the 30-item version could be used while maintaining the clinical utility of this test.

The revolving door patient

The introduction of effective psychopharmacological treatments for psychiatric disorders in the 1950s has revolutionized psychiatry and psychiatric care. 1 Not only have they fostered the move of psychiatry back to medicine, 2–4 but they have also been instrumental in the move towards deinstitutionalization. 5 This trend towards early discharge of patients from hospitals has developed under the banner of “community care,” and has given rise to the problem of the so-called revolving door patient. This problem has been accentuated by the failure to adequately recognize the chronic and/or relapsing nature of many psychiatric disorders, and by the failure of the community to provide adequate alternative care. 6–8 Thus, many chronic psychiatric patients now find themselves living a lonely existence in an uncaring community 9.10 or are a tremendous burden on their families. 11 Revolving door patients make up over half of all admissions to psychiatric hospitals. A review of studies up to 1974 on the problem of recidivism found that only one variable, namely, number of previous admissions, predicted rehospitalization, and it was argued that focusing on psychopathology or diagnosis was too narrow a focus. 12 A further study in which 36 of 107 patients were readmitted found that these patients were more likely to be unemployed and tended to be single, separated, or divorced. 13 A subsequent study found that 9%–14% of all admissions were readmissions within 1 month of discharge, and that compared with the total population admitted, these patients who were of no particular diagnosis contained a high proportion of young and divorced or separated patients. 14 Another study found an inverse relationship between length of hospital stay and rate of rehospitalization across diagnosis. 15 The present article looks at the preceding variables in relation to readmission by comparing data on those with and without previous hospital admissions over a 10-week period, and by noting who over the following 6 months were readmitted to this hospital.

Social Factors and Admission to Psychiatric Hospital: Schizophrenia in Plymouth

Social Factors and Admission to Psychiatric Hospital: Schizophrenia in Plymouth

Attitudes toward mental illness and dependency among hospitalized psychiatric patients.

The Client Attitude Questionnaire and Client Independence Questionnaire were administered to 60 patients in treatment on a psychiatric unit at a state mental hospital to assess whether acceptance of a medical paradigm for treatment by hospitalized psychiatric inpatients is significantly related to passive-dependent attitudes as had been previously reported for psychiatric outpatients at a community mental health center. The correlation of .15 between scores on the two measures was statistically non-significant, as were the correlations between number of previous admissions and attitudes toward mental illness, number of previous admissions and attitudes of dependence, years of education and attitudes toward mental illness, years of education and attitudes of dependence, and age and attitudes toward mental illness. Mean differences between sexes on the two measures were non-significant as well. Age significantly and negatively correlated —.27 with attitudes of independence ( p < .05), suggesting that younger psychiatric patients are more independent from staff.

The recidivism of mental patients: a review of past studies.

A review of studies on readmission of patients to mental hospitals uncovered only one variable that consistently predicted the rehospitalization of mental patients: the number of previous admissions. It is suggested that the tendency of the psychiatric profession to search for a determinant of rehospitalization in diagnostic and psychopathological terms results in too narrow a focus, and that social processes contribute in large measure to patient readmission rates.

A Contribution to the Statistics of the Asylum Treatment of Alcoholics [Zur Statistik der Anstaltsbehandlung der Alkoholisten]. (Allg. Zeits. f. Psychiat., Bd. lviii, H. 4, 1901.) Moeli.

This paper gives a very elaborate analysis of 742 cases of alcoholism (males) admitted to the Lichtenberg Asylum during the six years 1893–99. The cases are classified according to the number of previous admissions, mode of admission (from police, from hospitals, and voluntarily), length of interval in relapsing cases, duration of treatment, nature of symptoms, predisposition (heredity, trauma, epilepsy, etc.), external influences (occupation, home conditions, etc.), nature of offence in criminal cases. Further cross classifications show the relations of these different orders of fact to one another.