Schizophrenia and social networks: ex-patients in the inner city

A high level of social contacts has been recognized as one of the main predictors of outcome in schizophrenia. However, a variety of issues concerning the sociability of schizophrenics still need to be clarified. Focusing on ex-mental patients residing in a large Manhattan hotel, an analysis is made of the relationship between several social network variables, psychopathology, and rehospitalization. The findings indicate that: (1) Schizophrenics have significantly fewer linkages than nonpsychotics, but even the most impaired schizophrenics are not totally isolated. (2) Within the schizophrenic spectrum there are differences with respect to network size, complexity, directionality, and interconnectedness. (3) Rehospitalization is dependent upon two factors, degree of psychopathology and hotel network size.