title: Clinical outcome and length of stay in an Italian Psychiatric Emergency Service.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aims of the present study were to analyze outcome and to evaluate diagnosis-specific pattern of improvement during a brief hospitalization in a Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES) in a catchment area in Turin, Italy.
  
  
  METHODS
  A sample of 848 acute patients, consecutively hospitalized between January 2007 and December 2008 in the PES of the San Giovanni Battista Hospital, with diagnoses of non-affective psychosis-affective psychosis, depressive disorder and mania-and personality disorder (DSM-IV-TR) was recruited. All patients were assessed with the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). One-way analysis of variance was used to measure patients' individual reliable and clinically significant change speed between BPRS assessments, in which change speed was referred to the division of the gap between admission and discharge scores over the number of days of length of stay (LOS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The overall sample showed a significant improvement of BPRS total score and each domain during a brief hospitalization (mean LOS 10.5 days), with a different pattern between the diagnostic groups. A significant difference in change speed of BPRS resulted in the whole sample and in each diagnostic groups; patients with mania showed a significantly faster improvement.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A brief hospitalization in our service was shown to be highly effective. A different and diagnosis-specific patients' individual reliable and clinically significant change speed was observed, with a significantly faster improvement in patients with mania.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Psychiatric Emergency Service, S. Giovanni Battista Hospital, Turin, Italy.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Frieri
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Montemagni
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rocca
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rocca
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Villari
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D010054:Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale; D039721:Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders; D004637:Emergency Services, Psychiatric / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data* / Q000639:trends; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult