Short-term versus long-term hospitalization in a private psychiatric facility: a follow-up study.

A follow-up study was made of 43 short-term and 42 long-term ex-patients 18 months after their discharge from a private psychiatric hospital. The short-term sample was different from the long-term sample on many preadmission and hospitalization variables, but it was much less different on the follow-up variables. Although most ex-patients in both samples were functioning well at follow-up, the long-term sample was doing somewhat better in all areas, according to both the former patients and their nearest relatives. Differences between the improvement of those in the short- and long-term sample increased when tested by diagnosis; long-term schizophrenic patients improved the most.