Practices preventing rehospitalization of individuals with schizophrenia

While psychosocial care approaches such as assertive community treatment or partial hospitalization can help prevent psychiatric inpatient stay, the ability of specific services to prevent admission is less clear (e.g., recognizing signs of impending relapse, promoting daily structure). Therefore, within 3 months of psychiatric hospital discharge, this study examined the extent to which inpatient readmission among 264 persons with schizophrenia was averted by interventions addressing medication education, symptom education, service continuity, social skills, daily living, daily structure, and family issues. After accounting for demographic characteristics in logistic regression equations, findings suggested that interventions addressing symptom education, service continuity, and daily structure were most effective in preventing inpatient stay among individuals with four or more prior hospitalizations. However, these services became statistically insignificant in preventing readmission among counterparts with fewer previous inpatient stays. While protective effects may differ among persons with varying hospitalization histories, results indicate that resource-poor outpatient centers could focus on these three interventions when care must be limited to rehospitalization prevention.