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Service utilization by schizophrenic patients in Groningen and South-Verona: an event-history analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2009

S. Sytema ,
R. Micciolo  and
M. Tansella
S. Sytema*
Affiliation:
Afdeling Sociale Psychiatrie, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, The Netherlands; Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psychiatria, Università di Verona, and Istituto di Statistica e Ricerca Operativa, Università di Trento, Italy
R. Micciolo
Affiliation:
Afdeling Sociale Psychiatrie, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, The Netherlands; Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psychiatria, Università di Verona, and Istituto di Statistica e Ricerca Operativa, Università di Trento, Italy
M. Tansella
Affiliation:
Afdeling Sociale Psychiatrie, Rijksuniversiteit, Groningen, The Netherlands; Servizio di Psicologia Medica, Istituto di Psychiatria, Università di Verona, and Istituto di Statistica e Ricerca Operativa, Università di Trento, Italy
*
1Address for correspondence: Dr S. Sytema, Academisch Ziekenhuis Groningen Psychiatrische Universiteitskliniek, Afdeling Sociale Psychiatrie, Postbus 30001, 9700RB Groningen, The Netherlands.
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Synopsis

The question addressed to in this paper is whether severely mentally ill patients are treated differently in a community mental health service without the back-up of a mental hospital (South-Verona, Italy) compared with an institution-based system in which mental hospitals, although highly modernized, are still predominant (Groningen, The Netherlands). Using the psychiatric case-registers in both areas, the patterns of care in 2 years of follow-up of schizophrenic patients were constructed. Survival analysis was used to analyse in-, day- and out-patient episodes of care. Three-quarters of the Groningen and half of the South-Verona patients experienced at least one episode of hospitalization; 20% of the Groningen and 5% of the South-Verona patients were long-stay patients at the end of the observation period. The South-Verona patients had more episodes of in-patient and especially of day-patient and out-patient care. Cox's regression showed that the duration of episodes controlled for the history of events and sociodemographic characteristics, was significantly shorter in South-Verona. One of the main conclusion was that hospitalizations for the severely mental ill are also needed in a community-based system of care, supporting the assumption of a ‘bed-rock’ of mental illness. However, the South-Verona community mental health service seems to be able to reduce the duration of hospitalizations considerably.

Type
Original Articles
Information
Psychological Medicine , Volume 26 , Issue 1 , January 1996 , pp. 109 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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