A ten-year follow-up study of 100 patients admitted consecutively to a mental hospital revealed the following information. The patients used the hospital beds for an average of one year and two months of the ten years, that is, about. one-eighth of the time. The co-operative schizophrenic patients could be kept out of hospital with proper maintenance therapy. Patients admitted with organic psychoses died after an average of one and three-quarter years. Of the ‘functional’ cases nearly a half were alive after ten years, 8 were dead (2 or 3 suicides) and the rest could not be traced. The patients had an average of 23 physicians but this large number does not appear to have harmed them. Nearly all patients had some drug therapy, the two most frequently prescribed categories being neuroleptics and antidepressants. About half the patients had occupational and work therapy. The condition of the 68 survivors was considered to be: ‘recovered’ or ‘much improved’ in 55 per cent; ‘moderately or slightly improved’ in 40 per cent and ‘unimproved or worse’ in 3 per cent. Their last known vocational status was ‘working or self-sufficient’ in 34 per cent, ‘dependent’ upon relatives or government support in 43 per cent and not known in 23 per cent.
Ten-Year Follow-Up of 100 Patients Admitted to a Mental Hospital
