Outcomes for psychiatric patients following first admission: relationships with voluntary and involuntary treatment and ethnicity.

Research suggests that there are ethnic differences in hospitalization outcomes for severely mentally ill patients. This study examined ethnic and sex differences in admission status, rapid readmission, and discharge placement of 487 patients on their first psychiatric admission. There were sex differences in admission status with significantly more male patients being involuntarily admitted than female patients. Ethnic differences in placement at discharge were not supported, but involuntarily admitted patients were over-represented in the less desirable outcome categories.