THE PREDICTION OF REHOSPITALIZATION: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN AGE OF FIRST PSYCHIATRIC TREATMENT CONTACT, MARITAL STATUS AND PREMORBID ASOCIAL ADJUSTMENT

Abstract

The 3-year incidence of rehospitalization of a group of 81 previously hospitalized schizophrenic patients was determined. A significant relationship was found between their incidence of rehospitalization and age of first psychiatric treatment contact (p<.001), premorbid asocial adjustment (p<.001) and marital status (<.025) The three predictor variables were all significantly related (p<.05). The results indicate that when one controls for either age of first psychiatric treatment contact or premorbid asocial adjustment marital status has no prognostic utility. The results also indicate that the presence of premorbid asocial adjustment is an almost certain indicator of rehospitalization (87.2 per cent), regardless of the patient's age at first psychiatric treatment contact. However, among patients who do not have a premorbid asocial history, early age of first psychiatric treatment contact effectively predicts rehospitalization. Only 15.0 per cent of the nonasocial patients whose first psychiatric treatment contact occurred at the age of 23 or older were rehospitalized.