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Treatment of Severe Psychiatric Illness in a Day Hospital

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Francis Creed ,
Philip Anthony ,
Ken Godbert  and
Peter Huxley
Francis Creed*
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
Philip Anthony
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
Ken Godbert
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
Peter Huxley
Affiliation:
University Department of Psychiatry, Rawnsley Building, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9WL
*
∗Correspondence
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Abstract

Severity of psychiatric illness was assessed using standardised clinical and social measures in 69 in-patients and 41 day patients admitted consecutively from the community. Day and in-patients differed little in terms of psychiatric symptoms and social disability, especially if compulsory admissions were excluded. Protection of self or others was a common reason for in-patient admission given by clinicians, who were otherwise prepared to treat seriously ill patients in the day hospital. Very few of the day patients had to be transferred to the in-patient facility, and at three months and one year the two groups showed similar improvements. It is concluded that day treatment is feasible for some seriously ill psychiatric patients, but a random-allocation study is required to assess more completely the efficacy of day treatment, and define the characteristics of those who require in-patient admission.

Type
Papers
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 154 , Issue 3 , March 1989 , pp. 341 - 347
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 1989 

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