An evaluation of treatment outcome for psychiatrically hospitalized adults

The need for well-conducted outcome studies has become more critical in recent years due to the increasing demands of third-party payers for demonstrations of the efficacy of inpatient psychiatric treatment. This study evaluated whether or not improvements made by psychiatric inpatients during hospitalization were maintained following discharge. Patients were evaluated with measures assessing psychiatric symptomatology, social functioning, and satisfaction with treatment. These measures were administered at admission, discharge, and three and six months following discharge. Results indicated that improvements in symptomatology and social functioning were maintained three and six months postdischarge. However, patients reported less satisfaction with treatment three months after discharge than they reported at the time of discharge.