[After care behavior of first-admission psychiatric patients during the year after their discharge]

228 patients who had been admitted for the first time to a psychiatric hospital were questioned one year after their discharge in respect of the use they made of the medical and non-medical facilities or institutions. The article describes the actual state of affairs in the after-care behaviour of the psychiatric patients, and goes into details with regard to the diagnosis-specific differences in their behaviour. It is especially in this group of patients that a great demand exists with regard to treatment facilities. 90% of the patients have some kind of contact with our health system, and almost 3/4 have undergone treatment for mental disturbances. The main burden of medical outpatient follow-up of psychiatric patients continues to rest with the family physicians. This is equally true for almost all groups of diagnosed diseases. The patients with schizophrenic psychoses represent the only difference, since they will tend to preferably look up a neurologist for the treatment of their mental complaints.