ABSTRACT
233 high-service-utilizing (HSU) psychiatric patients were recruited during an inpatient psychiatric treatment. They completed a questionnaire related to their treatment beliefs and were tracked via computerized medical records over 2 years. During the follow-up period, 79.8% were readmitted for additional inpatient psychiatric treatment. Survival analysis techniques were used to examine patients' rates of readmittance during the follow-up period. Number of previous year inpatient psychiatric days served as a significant predictor of readmittance status and time to readmission. The survival plot was split by previous-year inpatient days to examine the effect of this variable on readmission. Implications of findings are discussed.
Subject(s)
Emergency Services, Psychiatric/statistics & numerical data , Health Behavior , Mental Disorders/therapy , Models, Theoretical , Patient Readmission/statistics & numerical data , Surveys and Questionnaires , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Medical Records Systems, Computerized , Mental Disorders/epidemiology , Mental Disorders/psychology , Middle Aged , Patient Acceptance of Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Psychiatric Department, Hospital/statistics & numerical data , Risk Factors , Survival Analysis , Time Factors , Veterans/psychology , Veterans/statistics & numerical dataABSTRACT
The literature suggests that self-amputation is an outgrowth of either psychosis or paraphilia. In the case we present, the patient was neither psychotic at the time of amputation, nor did he ascribe a sexual motivation for his act. Instead, he had a long-standing idea that being an amputee was a critical aspect of his identity. The patient used the internet to research the method for his amputation and sought support from individuals with the same desire via e-mail, web sites, and Usenet news groups.
