[Psychiatric care in the past, present and future].

The changes in psychiatric service concern the realm of psychiatric hospitals, the ambulant services, and the complementary services for chronic patients. Influencing factors are the number of patients and the incidence of illnesses and their fluctuations, the available possibilities of therapy and provision and their changes, social changes, influences of the spirit of the age, and political and financial factors. The change in all these areas is briefly presented. There exist relevant figures in the literature. They are critically discussed. The quality of psychiatric services has been altered several times. The change concerns also the patients, in which general factors are to be mentioned like higher longevity, an increased number of chronic patients, aging of the population and the resulting increase in the incidence of psychiatric disturbances.