Community care and the prognosis of schizophrenia.

A group of 41 schizophrenic patients were followed up for a period of up to 8 1/2 years after their first admission to a general hospital psychiatric unit. During the follow-up period one third of the patients were not readmitted, and the remainder had between one and eight readmissions. Half of the patients spent less than 5 % of the follow-up period in hospital. Twenty-one patients remained in fairly close contact with at least one of the community services. A greater degree of clinical disturbance characterized high users, as compared with low users, of these services. At the end of the follow-up two patients were in hospital, half of the original cohort was considered clinically recovered and four-fifths socially recovered. The contribution of the general hospital and of the community services to the improved prognosis for schizophrenia is disucssed.