[Outpatient and inpatient neurological rehabilitation--a follow-up comparison]

Since the mid-90s outpatient rehabilitation has been developed by public health insurance companies and pension funds. Outpatient rehabilitation is defined as comprehensive multidisciplinary and medically supervised service which in neurological rehabilitation mostly follows inpatient rehabilitation. In the present paper partial results of a larger study (by Schoenle and Leyhe, 2000) are reported with respect to the follow-up of the effects of outpatient versus inpatient rehabilitation 6 month after termination of the treatment. Major results are the endurance of the effects over the observed time interval and the equivalent effectiveness of the two forms of rehabilitation. Distinct effects were observed for the two patient groups (more progress in the body related functional disturbances for inpatients versus cognitively related progress for the outpatients). The results reflect intrinsic features of neurological rehabilitation and the current organizational status of neurological rehabilitation in Germany.