[Long-term psychiatric patients in a sector of Oslo]

A prevalence of 6.9/1000 for long term psychiatric patients was found in an Oslo catchment area by sending a questionnaire to practising physicians and medical and social agencies. The respondents were asked to state the diagnoses. This produced prevalences of 2.6 for schizophrenia, 1.1 for affective psychoses and 0.8 for paranoid psychoses. The majority of the subjects were served primarily by the outpatient clinic and only a small minority by inpatient units. The primary health care and social care institutions were inadequately involved and coordinated. Less than 50% of the subjects obtained sufficient service in spite of an average of 2.1 treatment contacts. It is of interest to note that the larger the number of contacts, the more the service was found to be inadequate.