[Who is left in the institutions? Some problems in connection with the process of deinstitutionalization].

The medical and psychiatric diagnoses of 168 clients aged 16 to 65 years in a Norwegian institution for the mentally retarded were registered together with medication, level of functioning, and types of problem behavior. Most of these clients (64.9%) were profoundly or deeply retarded, and only 6.5% were independent of continuous supervision or help. Medical diagnoses were found in 87.5%, psychiatric diagnoses in 89.1% (DSM-III, axis I). Daily use of medication was found in 81.0% of the clients, and 48.9% used psychotropic drugs on a daily schedule. 58.3% of the clients had exhibited violent behavior during the last year, defined as assaults on persons, self-mutilation or destructiveness. The article discusses the implications of these observations for primary health care, which is expected to supply the necessary service to these clients after 1991.