Increase of medical hospital length of stay by depression in stroke and amputation patients: a pilot study.

Past studies have found that medical patients with the diagnosis of depression (comorbidity) have longer hospital lengths of stay (LOS) than those without the diagnosis of depression. This suggested that scores on a depression scale would be positively correlated with LOS. On a rehabilitation ward, 14 stroke and 17 amputee patients were given the Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) and lengths of stay were recorded. Correlations between GDS scores and LOS were +0.575 for stroke and +0.266 for amputee patients, both in the hypothesized direction. Explanations considered included: (1) depression and medical illness each produce morbidity which summate to require increased LOS; (2) depression delays medical recovery as well as the appearance of medical recovery, and (3) discharge planning is complicated by depression. When depression is associated with inpatient medical illness, DRGs may need to be reevaluated.