[Inpatient-Equivalent Treatment - Direct Admission vs. Referral from Psychiatric Inpatient Units]

The implementation of Inpatient-equivalent treatment (IET) is advocated. In the Munich IET-program about 50 % of the IET patients were admitted directly whereas 50 % were transferred from inpatient units.

Data on the first N = 169 IET patients were used to compare patients being directly admitted with those who were transferred from inpatients units to IET.

Patients admitted directly to IET more often had an affective disorder, had lower CGI scores, had better German language skills and were more often competitively employed. Most patients referred to IET from inpatient units (66 %) did not fulfil IET inclusion criteria during inpatient admission. Regarding IET duration there were no major differences between patients being directly admitted vs. those being transferred from inpatient units.

Patients not fulfilling IET inclusion criteria may still profit from CHRT after stabilization on inpatient units.