The young adult chronic patient: review and critique of the literature.

The deinstitutionalization movement has given rise to an increasing number of young adult chronic patients in the community, a situation that poses a serious problem for both psychiatry and society. It invites a reassessment of both the policy of keeping patients in the community and the manner in which it has been managed up to this point. In recent years, a number of articles dealing with the young adult chronic patient have appeared. This article will review and offer a critique of some of that literature in an effort to place "the young adult chronic" patient in better perspective in relation to the deinstitutionalization phenomenon.