title: Group therapy reduces medical and psychiatric hospitalization.
abstract: This article studies the impact of outpatient group therapy on medical care at a large city-county hospital. Of the 65 group therapy outpatients, 33 persons met the criterion of having attended at least 12 group sessions over the course of a year. We compared a control period (the year prior to initiating group therapy) with a study period (months 6-18 after starting group) and found a sharp decrease in the number of hospitalizations and in-hospital days. There was significantly increased use of neuroleptics and nonpsychotropics and increased attendance at nonpsychiatric clinics.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas.
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Weiner
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006296:Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011615:Psychotherapy, Group / Q000379:methods*; D013223:Statistics as Topic