First ever admission to medium security.

This paper describes the characteristics of a group of patients admitted to a Medium Security Unit over the course of a ten-year period who had never previously had any form of psychiatric inpatient care. We used a computerised data base to gain detailed information. The control group was made up of patients admitted to the same hospital over the study period who had been psychiatric inpatients before but not in medium secure conditions. We found that the patients from the first ever admission group were generally older and that the numbers had increased over the ten-year period. Their average length of stay was shorter. The most common diagnosis for all patients was schizophrenia. The findings suggest that there is a place for secure provision in the treatment of first episode psychosis, especially if the initial contact is through a penal institution.