Brief hospitalization: a two-year follow-up.

The author present two-year follow-up data of a controlled study of 175 newly admitted inpatients who lived with families, comparing the relative efficacy of brief hospitalization (with and without transitional day care) and standard hospitalization (with all patients offered outpatient aftercare). The long-term results confirm the preliminary finding that brief hospitalization is preferable to longer term hospitalization for most patients. Briefly hospitalized patients spent significantly less time as inpatients and showed less psychopathology and impairment in role functioning. In contrast to preliminary findings, the long-term results indicate that use of day care reduced the number of inpatient days.