Predicting hospital discharge status for patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, borderline personality disorder, and unipolar affective disorder.

The empiric literature reports few distinctive features among patients discharged against medical advice (AMA) or absent without leave and regularly discharged inpatients. Interactive relationships between predictors of discharge status and diagnosis have not been studied, however. This study used discriminant function analyses to test for predictors of discharge with medical advice, AMA, and by transfer for inpatients with schizophrenia (N = 132), schizoaffective disorder (N = 61), borderline personality disorder (N = 69), and unipolar affective disorder (N = 42) from a follow-up study. Results showed that indexes of chronic psychosis predicted transfer for all diagnoses. Angry, impulsive behavior and unstable relationships predicted AMA discharge in all but the unipolar patients. For the latter, being married was most powerfully associated with AMA status.