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EDITORIALS:
Delphine Capdevielle and Karen Ritchie
The long and the short of it: are shorter periods of hospitalisation beneficial?
The British Journal of Psychiatry 2008; 192: 164-165 [Abstract] [Full text] [PDF]
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[Read eLetter] The long and the short of it: are shorter periods of hospitalisation beneficial?
Ira D Glick   (27 February 2009)

The long and the short of it: are shorter periods of hospitalisation beneficial? 27 February 2009
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Ira D Glick,
Professor of Psychiatry
Stanford University School of Medicine

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Re: The long and the short of it: are shorter periods of hospitalisation beneficial?

iraglick{at}stanford.edu Ira D Glick

Capdevielle and Ritchie (1) have done an excellent job of surveying the recent literature on efficacy of psychiatric hospitalization for psychosis. However, there is a relatively large, controlled literature, - done in the 60s and 70s - which speaks directly to some of the points raised. The data from these studies suggests that ?longer hospitalization offers very little advantage over short stays? in outcome for most such patients. As it happens, our study was the only study that found any indications for a longer stay. We found that patients with acute (rather than chronic) schizophrenia did better with a longer stay (presumably because more psychoeducation was done with them and their families (2). Chapter 2 of our monograph details most of the studies (2).

We recently wrote a chapter (as evidence-based as we could make it) on a model of psychiatric hospitalization which reflects recent changes (3).

References

1. Cardevielle D, Ritchie K: The long and the short of it: are shorter periods of hospitalization beneficial? The British J of Psychiatry (2008) 192:164-165.

2. Glick ID, Hargreaves WA: Psychiatric Hospital Treatment for the 1980s: A Controlled Study of Short Versus Long Hospitalization. Lexington, Mass., Lexington Press, 1979, pp 7-14.

3. Glick ID, Tandon R: The Acute Crisis Stabilization Unit for Adults. In: Textbook of Hospital Psychiatry, Edited by Sharfstein S, Dickerson FB and Oldham JM. Arlington, VA, American Psychiatric Publishing Inc., 2008, pp 29-41.

Sincerely,

Ira D. Glick, M.D. (iraglick@stanford.edu) Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine 401 Quarry Road, Ste 2122 Stanford, CA 94305