[Chronicity viewed through the evolution of the psychiatric hospital]

In the past 10 years the main change in the mental hospital was a marked decrease of the long-stay schizophrenic patients, which for decades had been the most important group of inmates. Organic brain syndromes and mental deficiency on the contrary are becoming more important. The "acute" population shows no significant change. This is the consequence of improved treatments and still more of modified attitudes towards mental illness. The result is a drastic change of the function of the mental hospital.