title: Predicting inpatient length of stay with the expanded version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (version 4.0).
abstract: This study examined whether assessment data from administration of the extended version of the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS-E) to state hospital patients within 72 hours of their admission could be used to predict length of hospital stay. BPRS-E data for 222 first-admission patients, for whom the mean length of stay was 118.4+/-88.6 days, were factor analyzed, yielding a model with four factors: patient's resistance to treatment, positive symptoms, mood, and negative symptoms. Discriminant analysis showed that the negative symptoms factor (blunted affect, emotional withdrawal, motor retardation, self-neglect, and disorientation) correctly predicted whether length of stay would exceed the mean in 94 percent of cases. The findings suggest that the severity of negative symptoms can be a useful predictor of length of stay among patients with severe and persistent mental illness.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Psychology Department, Jackson State Universy, Jackson, Mississippi, USA. shwi0899@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Shawanda W
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Anderson
authors.forename: Alan J
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Crist
authors.forename: Nanetta
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Payne
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007297:Inpatients; D007902:Length of Stay; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D014481:United States