The authors compared treatment results for 141 schizophrenic patients randomly assigned to short-term or long-term hospitalization. Test results indicated that the long-term group was functioning significantly better one year after admission according to global measures only. The authors caution that the differences between the two groups, although statistically reliable, were modest and may have been confounded by the amount of psychotherapy the patients received after hospitalization. Although there appears to be a general advantage to the long-term approach, further work will be needed to identify patient subgroups for whom this more expensive treatment is cost effective.
The study evaluated the relationship between therapist personality and treatment success for 141 schizophrenics and 94 non-schizophrenics randomly assigned to short or long hospitalization. The 47 therapists were self-rated on the Whitehorn--Betz A--B scale in both the original and the Campbell versions. Outcome was assessed on the Health--Sickness Rating Scale and the Psychiatric Evaluation Form at discharge and at 1 and 2 year follow-up. The hypothesis of greater success for A--type therapists with schizophrenics was not confirmed, nor were alternative relationships evident in the data.
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