[Psychiatric day hospital - missing treatment start and early drop outs]

Early drop outs are a common problem in day hospital treatment. In this article special focus is given to patient description and reasons for rejecting the programme after entrance evaluation and informed consent for the program and early drop outs within 7 days.

The data of all consecutive patients of the first year were collected before admission, absent treatment start and early drop out.

There were no differences found between the group of early drop outs and rejecters and the other patients who participated to the programme as planned regarding social data, diagnostic, severity, distance or feasibility of transportation. The only difference we could find in our data was that the rejecters group had significant more somatic diagnosis.

We spend lot of time and personal resources on informed consent and selection before admission, which may be one reason for the low drop out rate. The possibilities of transfer to the inpatient unit or to somatic wards are necessary. In our experience it is helpful for treatment in a day hospital to cooperate with and be nearby a psychiatric department at a general hospital.