Failure to replicate the effects of gender and season on the length of hospitalisation in unipolar depressives.
BACKGROUND
Kecskés et al. [J. Affect. Dis. 73 (2003) 279] reported a possible effect of season and gender on the length of hospital stay among inpatients with a unipolar depression.


METHODS
The effects of season and gender upon the length of stay and clinical outcomes among 1283 inpatient admissions with unipolar depression diagnosed according to ICD-10 were examined.


RESULTS
Males had shorter length of stay but no better outcomes. There was no evidence of shorter lengths of stay for either gender in summer.


CONCLUSIONS
The present study failed to replicate the effect of season and gender on the length of stay in hospital among inpatients with unipolar major depression.


CONCLUSIONS
The clinical outcomes were based upon a single item from the Health of the Nation Outcome Scales (HoNOS).
Page
Andrew C
AC
School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia. andrew@psy.uwa.edu.au
Hooke
Geoffrey R
GR
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012621:Seasons; D012737:Sex Factors