Patients with schizophrenia after the acute ward: Seven years' service utilization and clinical course

What characterizes the use of treatment services and global functioning of patients with schizophrenia in sectorized psychiatry? Are there relationshi ps between patient characteristics, treatment characteristics, and outcome? Eighty-one patients with DSM-IIIR schizophrenia treated at a short-term un it serving a defined catchment area were followed up after 7 years. Seventy -four of the 76 patients alive at follow-up participated in the study. Glob al functioning was measured with the Health Sickness Rating Scale. The pati ents had mainly been treated as outpatients with short hospitalizations. Th e level of outpatient contact was high, and most used antipsychotic medicat ion throughout the follow-up period. Global outcome was poor in spite of de mographic characteristics associated with good outcome in schizophrenia. Th e uniformly poor outcome indicates that the overall organization of treatme nt services did not suit these patients with schizophrenia. The treatment n eeds of patients with later onsets of psychosis seemed to be underestimated .