Effects of brief hospitalization on psychiatric patients' behaviour and social functioning

224 newly admitted inpatients were randomly allocated to two treatment groups: standard care (length of stay determined by the clinical team) and brief care (acute treatment aimed at effecting the patient's discharge after about a week). Using a new research instrument (the Patient Behaviour Assessment Schedule), information was gathered from the patient's closest relative or friend on a subsample of 99 patients (the "target group"), which actually showed shortened length of hospitalization for brief care patients. There were no significant differences between groups at the two follow-up evaluations on measures of behavioural disturbances and limited social functioning. Results for the whole "target" group reveal that although there was significant improvement in both behaviour and social functioning 2 weeks after admission, there was little subsequent change thereafter. Overall, individual patients demonstrated more improvement in behavioural disturbance than in social functioning at the follow-up interview.