G. Presting et al., VARIABILITY OF INPATIENT CHILD AND ADOLES CENT-PSYCHIATRY - RESULTS OF A MULTICENTER STUDY, ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KINDER-UND JUGENDPSYCHIATRIE UND PSYCHOTHERAPIE, 26(2), 1998, pp. 97-112
Variability of impatient child and adolescent psychiatry - results of
a multicenter study. Objective: For the first time in the German-speak
ing countries a complete evaluation of all 1236 inpatient treatment ep
isodes within one year of investigation was carried out. Method: Case-
related patient documentation at all of the 13 clinics for child and a
dolescent psychiatry in Lower Saxony and Bremen were evaluated. Result
s: Data from all clinics agreed widely on the folowing: 1. the diverge
nt family structures of the young patients compared to those of the ge
neral public, 2. a high degree of individual psychotherapy, and 3. the
inclusion of the patient's social circumstances in the individual psy
chotherapy. Nonetheless, results for most of the variables assessed di
ffered strongly. Inpatient child and adolescent psychiatric care thus
seems to vary highly among clinics within the same epidemiological are
a. Conclusions: Hence, even when the reported number of episodes is hi
gh, no general conclusions on inpatient child and juvenile psychiatric
treatment can be drawn on the basis of admissions data for individual
clinics. Interinstitutional comparisons must be made on the assumptio
n that there is no prototype clinic for child and adolescent psychiatr
y. Additional general conclusions include the lack of a disorder-speci
fic approach to treatment. The entry of a large number of patients int
o foster or state homes following inpatient treatment reflects the imp
act upon them of abnormal psychosocial circumstances, as well as their
decreased psychosocial adaption.