Length of stay and recidivism in schizophrenia: a study of public psychiatric hospital patients

Abstract

Although the magnitude of the effect was small, the clinical significance of the findings is the greater likelihood that brief-stay patients will be rehospitalized within 30 days after discharge than will patients treated for longer periods. Brief hospitalization seems generally applicable to psychiatric populations, but there may be a small but important group of seriously mentally ill patients for whom other alternatives are possibly more appropriate and should be explored.