Because of the important role of halfway houses in the recovery of many alcoholic patients, patients' attitudes toward accepting placement in a halfway house were studied in a state hospital's alcohol rehabilitation program. Verbal intentions to accept or not to accept placement were measured at the beginning and again toward the end of the program sequence. Both assessments showed a strong correlation with the patients' actual behaviors. The relationships between intentions and ultimate choices were moderated both by the amount of time between observations and, independently of the passage of time, by the subjects' experience with or knowledge about halfway houses. Changes over the course of the program were mostly positive (favorable toward going and actually doing so). These shifts mainly involved the people who had been initially undecided about placement in a halfway house. Amount of time spent in the rehabilitation program was unrelated to patients' initial intentions toward going and had little bearing on their final decisions.

Alcoholism↗

PubMedDate not supplied

A cluster analytic study of functional outcome after psychiatric hospitalization.

We report the initial results from a prospective study designed to assess patients' functional outcome and level of service utilization following psychiatric hospitalization. All patients admitted between March 31, 1993 and April 1, 1994 were interviewed at admission and discharge, and 350 consenting patients were reassessed 3 months postdischarge. Subgroups were created using cluster analysis (measures of outcome were rehospitalization, self-rated productivity and functioning, and satisfaction with living situation and employment/daily activities at the 3-month follow-up study), and these clusters were then validated using other variables. Four distinct outcome categories were identified. Cluster I contained patients with the greatest functional impairment and the highest rate of rehospitalization (28%). Cluster IV patients reported superior functioning and satisfaction and the lowest rate of rehospitalization (8%). Clusters II and III had intermediate outcomes, the first characterized by greater satisfaction with living situation, and the other by higher ratings for functioning and productivity. Outcome data are important to providers for program evaluation and patient care; if replicated in other samples, the four outcome categories reported may be useful for national mental health care policy and planning.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Validity of a brief measure of post-hospital adjustment for psychiatric patients.

This study examined the psychometric properties of a 14-item self-administered outcome measure of post-hospital adjustment for former psychiatric inpatients. Such scales are frequently used in follow-up assessment, often without knowledge of scale reliability or validity. Responses to the scale items were factor analyzed for two samples, former patients and their therapists, each group rating the patient's post-hospital adjustment. Two strong factors emerged and were consistent across both samples: an anxiety-depression (intrapsychic) dimension and a functioning/productivity (external adjustment) dimension. Both scales showed good convergent validity with longer, standardized measures. Agreement between patients and therapists was adequate for anxiety-depression, indicating good consensual validity, but poor for functional adjustment. For the expatients, discriminant validity was not evident.

Activities of Daily Living↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Relationship of structure to function of muscle phosphorylase.

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Animals↗