[How can one achieve compliance?--On the after-care of psychiatric patients after clinic discharge].

For 384 of 558 hospitalized psychiatric patients who were discharged within six months and for whom it was possible to plan aftercare, compliance was controlled by a phone call three months after discharge at the institution or practice to which the patient had been directed. Eighty percent of the ambulatory patients complied (schizophrenic patients: 84%). After three months 70 percent of the compliers still were in treatment. The hospital's arranging an appointment for the patient had the strongest influence on compliance. The success of this strategy is confirmed by the literature.