Citation

Tulloch AD, Fearon P, David AS. Soc. Psychiatry Psychiatr. Epidemiol. 2008; 43(7): 569-574.

Affiliation

Division of Psychological Medicine and Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, SE5 8AF, UK.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group)

DOI

10.1007/s00127-008-0332-2

PMID

18347750

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Acute psychiatric admissions lasting over 6 months (long-stays) continue to occur in England. Previous studies have suggested an association between long-stay and both schizophrenia and challenging behaviour, as well as rehousing or placement difficulties, but no UK study to date has compared such cases with control admissions. METHODS: We performed a case-control study. All long-stay patients present on acute general psychiatric wards serving the London Boroughs of Croydon, Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark on November 1st 2004 were compared with a group of 'next admitted' controls. We followed up long-stay cases 1 year later to determine whether they were still in hospital, and, if not, where they were living. RESULTS: In unadjusted comparisons long stay was associated with schizophrenia, non-white ethnicity, admission not due to suicidality, violence, severe illness and need for rehousing. A logistic regression was used to adjust for associations among exposures and only violence, severity of illness and need for rehousing remained associated with long-stay. After 1 year, two-thirds of cases were living out of hospital. CONCLUSIONS: Case-control studies may usefully contribute to the study of the complex social phenomenon of long-stay. Further research should address how the combination of individual and socially-determined effects that we found operate together over the course of admission to generate long-stays.

Language: en