Citation

McGlashan TH, Heinssen RK. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 1988; 45(4): 363-368.

Affiliation

Chestnut Lodge Research Institute, Rockville, MD 20850.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1988, American Medical Association)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

3355323

Abstract

The prognosis of self-discharged inpatients has seldom been studied, especially by diagnosis, and is frequently assumed to be poor. This study evaluated the long-term (15-year average) outcome of inpatients discharged with medical advice (WMA), against medical advice (AMA), or by transfer for patients with schizophrenia (N = 113), schizoaffective disorder (N = 46), borderline personality disorder (N = 63), and unipolar affective disorder (N = 33) from a follow-up study. Results showed that outcome among discharge cohorts varied considerably depending on diagnostic category. Within each diagnostic cohort, outcome of transferred patients was poorest. The outcome of AMA-discharged patients was poorer than the outcome of patients discharged with medical advice only in the unipolar cohort, except that AMA discharge in schizoaffective patients correlated significantly with suicide.

Language: en