title: Who shall be hospitalized? Some social and psychological correlates of alternative dispositions of the mentally ill.
abstract: This study conducted in Cali, Colombia, focuses on the question of why persons sharing similar background characteristics and even the same diagnosis often receive varying prescriptive evaluations which lead to alternative types of psychiatric care: hospitalization, outpatient care and no systematic treatment at all. An index group of 70 hospitalized patients is compared with 53 outpatients and 30 "nonpatients" matched for sex, age, marital status, social class and diagnosis. Interviews were conducted with patients, relatives and the admitting doctors. A selected group of variables representing perceptions, opinions and attitudes of the relatives, subjective evaluations of the patients and perceptions of the admitting physician are examined in terms of their association with the three types of care. It is concluded that interpersonal factors exert a significant influence on the process of assigning cases to alternative types of psychiatric care. Typical profiles for each category are outlined.
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D003105:Colombia; D005190:Family; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization; D006778:Hospitals, Psychiatric; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008393:Marriage; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D008875:Middle Aged; D012737:Sex Factors; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors