Relationship of mental status, functioning and stress to readmission of schizophrenics

A study was conducted to determine the interrelations among the variables of patient functioning, life stress, mental status and readmission to the hospital after release. The population consisted of 516 chronic and 125 acute schizophrenic men and women. Stress and functioning were measured by the Social Stress and Functionability Inventory for Psychotic Disorders. Mental status was assessed through the use of a standard Problem Appraisal inventory. Results demonstrated that mental status variables correlated at a low level with readmission, accounting for a minimal amount of variance, and that the factor of patient functioning had more predictive value, but its effectiveness was hampered by the long-standing cycle of admission-release-readmission in regard to chronic patients. Apparently there is no justification for considering mental status as a factor in prognosis, as some researchers have done in the past, based on the same low correlations.