Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
-
Between six percent and 35% of psychiatric patients discharge themselves from hospital against medical advice (AMA). The discharges may prevent patients from deriving the full benefit of hospitalization and may result in rapid rehospitalization. We examined sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of 195 irregular discharges from a 237 bed psychiatric hospital over a five year period and found that AMA discharges increased over the study period to a peak of 25% in 1986. ⋯ The repeat group also spent twice as long in hospital, and 27% were readmitted within one-week of the index AMA discharge. Less than three percent of the one-time AMA group was readmitted within a week. These results were cross-validated on a new sample of irregular discharges and matched controls.