Fj. Nienhuis et al., EFFICACY OF PSYCHIATRIC DAY TREATMENT - COURSE AND OUTCOME OF PSYCHIATRIC-DISORDERS IN A RANDOMIZED TRIAL, European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience, 244(2), 1994, pp. 73-80
The course of the psychopathology and social functioning- in an experi
mental day-treatment group referred for inpatient psychiatric treatmen
t is compared with that of a control group receiving standard inpatien
t care. During a follow-up period of 2 years subjects were interviewed
three times. The interview comprised information about psychiatric sy
mptoms, psychological functions, psychiatric diagnosis and social-role
functioning. Apart from these discrete assessments an effort was made
to map episodes of illness throughout the follow-up period. Upon entr
y the groups did not differ in terms of psychopathology or social func
tioning. At follow-up both groups had improved significantly with resp
ect to symptomatology. psychological and social functioning. The exten
t to which the groups improved did not differ significantly regarding
pathology, but self-care improved more in the experimental group. The
average duration of episodes of illness was similar for the experiment
al and control group. During the 2-year follow-up patients suffered fr
om a well-defined disorder during an average of 11 months. The fact th
at approximately 40% of them were still a psychiatric case after 2 yea
rs further underscores the severity of their pathology.