Am J Psychiatry 1975; 132:523-528
Copyright © 1975 by American Psychiatric Association
Token programs in an acute psychiatric hospital
TJ Crowley
The author has used individually prescribed token economies with about 5
percent of his acute psychiatric inpatients. Previous reports have dealt
primarily with chronic patients. Case reviews indicated that patients
chosen for these programs fell into four categories (which are illustrated
by case histories): depressed complainers, apathetic and withdrawn
patients, agitated psychotics, and impulsive, acting-out nonpsychotics. The
author recommends techniques for patient selection, goal setting, and
determination of reinforcers, and suggests that use of token programs may
forestall the social breakdown syndrome in very disturbed patients.
