[Admission to private psychiatric institutions: reliability of official data for epidemiological purposes]

The authors have collected clinical data regarding patients admitted to a private psychiatric institutions in the Naples hinterland. The aim was that of determining the reliability of official data collected from the central regional statistical office of patients admitted in 1988. The duration of stay and the "revolving door" phenomenon of the cases as well as the nosographic classification at dismissal of the patients is influenced by variables not strictly of clinical nature. The information that becomes official and public for administration purposes is not reliable from the point of view of epidemiological studies.