The Effects of Patient Education on the Recidivism Rate and Length of Stay of Clients with Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia is a complicated, serious mental illness that affects about 1% of the population. In addition to the behavioral issues they must contend with, the patients often have other problems including medical illness, substance abuse, noncompliance with treatment and medications, and those involving basic skills. The cost of treating this disabled population is very high, but patient education could be a cost-effective intervention to break the “revolving door” phenomenon of recidivism and rehospitalization. This study examined the readmission rate (recidivism), length of stay, and the intervals between admissions for 279 male and 183 female patients with chronic schizophrenia who either did or did not participate in psychosocial education over a nine (9) year period to determine whether there was a difference between the groups. The findings showed that both the number of patients and return rate (recidivism) for the years following the initial intervention was considerably lower for patients who had the educational intervention and the patients who had the educational intervention had longer intervals between admissions. However, due to uncontrolled-for confounding variables, the average LOS for the intervention group for 4 of the 8 years was greater than the control group.