ABSTRACT
In general, if one follows a cohort of formerly hospitalized patients, the best predictor of rehospitalization is the number of times that the patient has been hospitalized. This chapter discusses findings of an intensive follow-up study of a cohort of patients who were first admitted to a mental hospital in the 1950s with diagnoses of schizophrenia, affective psychosis, severe psychoneurosis, or character disorder. Inclusion in the sample depended on the availability of an interviewer at the time of the patient’s admission and the willingness of the patient’s spouse to be interviewed. Patients with affective diagnoses came from higher status backgrounds than did those diagnosed schizophrenic, but when diagnosis is held constant there is no hint of a trend toward poorer outcomes for lower status men or women. The relatively favorable outcomes of our patients are also related to the fact that the population was designated at the time of first admission to a mental hospital.
