Hospital psychiatry: review and survey.

The Psychiatric Institute of Washington commissioned a study of the "state of the art" of hospital psychiatry. The project included a review of the literature, visits to 29 representative and distinguished facilities, reports on 17 aspects of hospital psychiatry, and study of the Psychiatric Institute's own units. Medical psychiatry, precise diagnosis, crisis intervention, and prescription of appropriate specific treatment modalities in short-term units constitute the trend of the time. Clinicians who work with treatment failures and in referral centers and whose goal is character change seem engaged in less active technical dialogue, but care for many patients in centers of distinguished reputation.