One Year After Discharge: Community Adjustment of Schizophrenic Patients
NINA R. SCHOOLER 1,
SOLOMON C. GOLDBERG PH.D.2,
HELVI BOOTHE M.S.S.3, , and
JONATHAN O. COLE M.D.4
1 Research Social Psychologist, Psychopharmacology Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. 20014
2 Head of the Clinical Studies Unit, Psychopharmacology Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. 20014
3 Central Staff Coordinator for Social Work, Psychopharmacology Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. 20014
4 Chief, Psychopharmacology Research Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Md. 20014
From a group of 299 schizophrenic patients discharged after a study of short-term drug action, 254 were living in the community a year following initial discharge from the hospital. These expatients were evaluated to assess their community adjustment and to determine the relationship between aspects of each individual's premorbid history and course of illness with subsequent community adjustment. While most of the expatients were functioning at a social level comparable to their own "best former" level, only 11 percent could be described as functioning as well as the average person in the community. A number of background, psychiatric history, and environmental factors were found to be related to community adjustment; of these, the characteristics of the environment to which the patient was discharged seemed especially significant.
