The Psychiatric Day Center in the Treatment of the Chronic Schizophrenic
IRWIN GOOTNICK M.D.1
1 Director, Psychiatric Day Center, San Francisco, Calif., and is also Clinical Instructor in Psychiatry at both the Department of Psychiatry, University of California at San Francisco, and at McAuley Neuropsychiatric Institute, Saint Mary's Hospital, San Francisco, Calif.
The treatment needs of the posthospitalized chronic schizophrenic have not been successfully met by one-to-one psychotherapy, mostly due to the transference problems in the patient-therapist relationship. The author believes that the group therapy and social experience provided in a psychiatric day center better meet the needs of these patients, leading to a marked decrease in rehospitalization rates and to significant functional improvement.
