Long Hospital Stay May Help Severely Mentally Ill

June 10, 2002

Excerpted from Reuters Health - Mentally ill patients may fare better after long stays in a psychiatric hospital, compared with shorter stints, results of a recent study suggest.

The findings are important, say researchers based at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, because long-term units in mental institutions are being "downsized and closed" in the state, even though there is little evidence for or against their effectiveness.

"I think one has to ask...the cost of having a number of our patients ending up in prisons or on the street," Golding added.

Most patients who were admitted to long-term care suffered from chronic schizophrenia, often combined with substance abuse.