Clinical, cognitive and functional characteristics of long-stay patients with schizophrenia: a comparison of VA and state hospital patients

Long-stay patients constitute a small proportion of all patients with schiz ophrenia, but in both VA and state psychiatric systems these patients accou nt for a majority of the costs associated with treatment of the illness. VA and state patients would be expected to differ in several respects, includ ing age at onset and premorbid educational status. Little additional inform ation is available about the differences between these samples. Seventy-fou r long-stay male patients at a chronic state psychiatric center were compar ed with 50 male veterans from long-stay psychiatric facilities on positive and negative symptoms, cognitive deficits and functional status. The two sa mples did not differ on positive symptom severity, but the state patients h ad more severe negative and cognitive symptoms as well as functional defici ts. Of all of the variables measured, deficit in self care was the only var iable that entered a stepwise discriminant analysis. The correlation betwee n functional and symptomatic variables was the same in both groups, and the group differences and correlations were not influenced by differences in e ducational status. These data indicate that VA patients may have reduced se verity of functional and cognitive impairments relative to state hospital p atients, but that the relationship between the different illness variables was similar in the two groups. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights re served.