Am J Psychiatry 1976; 133:518-521
Copyright © 1976 by American Psychiatric Association
Limitations of Brief Hospital Treatment
S Reibel and MI Herz
A total of 175 newly admitted inpatients who lived with their families were
randomly assigned to three treatment groups: standard inpatient care and
brief hospitalization with and without transitional day care. Case reports
of 6 of the 9 patients considered "study failures" illustrate that
effective postdischarge adaptation is limited by the patients' degree of
impairment as well as the family and community capacity to accept them.
Although rapid return to the community is beneficial to many patients,
rigid adherence to this policy is neither wise nor clinically effective.
