Immediate clinical assessment of medical intervention in schizophrenic patients admitted to an acute-care psychiatric unit: A retrospective, naturalistic and multicenter study

Abstract

Objective. This study was conducted to assess whether an early improvement of symptoms had an impact on the length of hospital stay in patients with schizophrenia admitted to acute-care psychiatric/short-stay units in routine daily practice. Methods. A naturalistic, retrospective and multicenter study was designed to examine the immediate clinical assessment (day 5 and at discharge) of the medical intervention of schizophrenia in 1346 patients requiring in-patient care. Results. Intensification of psychotic symptoms was due to non-adherence to antipsychotic medication (67%), lack of efficacy of treatment (27%), and substance use (24%). Patients treated with antipsychotics increased from 78.7% before hospitalization to almost 100% at discharge. There was an increase in the percentage of symptom-free patients after 5 days of treatment as compared with the day 1 (6.2 vs. 10.1%). The mean (standard deviation, SD) scores of the Clinical Global Impression scale decreased from 5.3 (0.9) on admission to 4.3 (1.2) on day 5 and 3.0 (1.1) at hospital discharge. At discharge, symptoms had improved in 86.3% of patients. Conclusions. Improvement of symptoms on day 3, male sex, active working status, voluntary, and use of benzodiazepines during in-patient care were significantly associated with hospital discharge.

Key Words::

• Schizophrenia
• clinical assessment
• hospitalization
• risk factors and treatment

Acknowledgments

We thank Content Ed Net Madrid and Marta Pulido, MD, for editing the manuscript and editorial assistance.

Statement of Interest

The study was funded by Janssen-Cilag Spain. Iván Bernardo-Fernández is an employee of Janssen-Cilag, Madrid.