Rehospitalization of the Schizophrenic Patient

Widely disparate results concerning the value of aftercare for post-hospitalized mental patients are found in the current literature. Several authors have reported rehospitalization rates of groups of patients assigned to aftercare on a nonrandom basis, such as the hospital physician's recommendation. Two such studies by Freeman and Simmons³and by Williams and Walker,¹¹fail to support the value of aftercare, whereas one such study by Hornstra and McPartland⁴does report a lower rehospitalization rate for aftercare patients. Free and Dodd²and Katz and Cole⁵report studies which used random assignment of post-hospital patients to aftercare and control groups. In the Free and Dodd study of 596 patients, 35.1% of the control and 14.6% of the aftercare group returned to the hospital within a year of discharge. Katz and Cole report a study in progress by Engelhardt which attempts