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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 6/2010

01-06-2010 | Original Paper

Outcome and length of stay in psychiatric hospitalization, the experience of the University Clinic of Turin

Authors: Paola Rocca, C. Mingrone, T. Mongini, C. Montemagni, L. Pulvirenti, G. Rocca, F. Bogetto

Published in: Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology | Issue 6/2010

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Abstract

Background

Given the current tendency to shorten psychiatric hospitalization and change its organization, an issue could be raised regarding its outcomes.

Purpose

To analyze features related to length of stay in a short-term inpatient treatment, to study outcomes and to evaluate the diagnosis-specific effects of hospitalization.

Method

A sample of 310 consecutive hospitalized patients, with psychotic disorder, depressive disorder and bipolar disorder (DSM IV-TR), was recruited at the University Psychiatric Clinic, Service for Cognitive Disorders, Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin. Severity of illness was rated using the brief psychiatry rating scale (BPRS). We evaluated relations between length of stay and clinical and socio-demographic features (linear regression) and possible differences confronting BPRS scores at admission and discharge in the different diagnostic subgroups (ANOVA for repeated measures).

Results

All the sample of patients showed a significant improvement in symptomatology during hospitalization. Worse symptomatology in anxiety-depression domain of BPRS at admission in the whole sample was positively correlated with length of stay. A longer length of stay was also shown in patients with diagnosis of depressive disorder. Finally, a different pattern of improvement of BPRS (total score and domains) was shown between the different diagnostic groups.

Conclusion

Brief hospitalization in our service was shown to be highly effective. Different diagnostic groups had different response to hospitalization, showing faster improvement in characteristic symptomatology, but the anxiety-depression domain showed the highest percentage of change for all the diagnostic groups. We therefore suppose that hospitalization has two effects: a specific (due to tailored therapies) and a non-specific one (due to non-specific therapy and to a placebo-like effect).
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Metadata
Title
Outcome and length of stay in psychiatric hospitalization, the experience of the University Clinic of Turin
Authors
Paola Rocca
C. Mingrone
T. Mongini
C. Montemagni
L. Pulvirenti
G. Rocca
F. Bogetto
Publication date
01-06-2010
Publisher
Springer-Verlag
Published in
Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology / Issue 6/2010
Print ISSN: 0933-7954
Electronic ISSN: 1433-9285
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-009-0091-8

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