[Beds for sleeping and dreaming: the crisis in the psychiatric assistance hospital]

The author reviews the problem of the traditional psychiatric assistance based essentially in the custodial work. The psychiatric beds in that sense are not valid at the present moment. The changes in the kind of patients that to day we see in our clinics and general hospitals, are quite different and also the possibility of our treatments. In this paper, the author analyzes some of these changes observed in the psychiatric admissions in the province of Zaragoza (Spain) between 1966 and 1977. Essentially the increase was in the alcoholic group, and the diminution was in the schizophrenic one. Finally the author gives some numbers concerning the University Psychiatric Department that works in the context of one General Hospital, and concludes with some questions very difficult to answer.