Long-term hospitalizations for schizophrenia in the Czech Republic 1998–2012

Deinstitutionalization has not been pursued in the post-communist Europe until recently. The population of psychiatric patients institutionalized in the regional mental hospitals is, however, largely understudied. The aim of this study is to assess discharges of long-term inpatients with schizophrenia from Czech psychiatric hospitals and to analyse re-hospitalizations within this group. The nationwide register of all-cause inpatient hospitalizations was merged with the nationwide register of all-cause deaths on an individual level basis. Descriptive statistics, survival analysis and logistic regression were performed. 3601 patients with schizophrenia previously hospitalized for more than a year were discharged from Czech mental hospitals between 1998 and 2012. This included 260 patients hospitalized for > 20 years. Nearly one fifth (n = 707) of the long-term patients died during the hospitalization; and discharges of 19.36% (n =697) were only administrative in their nature. Out of 2197 truly discharged patients, 14.88% (n = 327) were re-hospitalized within 2 weeks after the discharge. The highest odds of rehospitalization were associated with being discharged against medical advice (OR 5.27, CI: 3.77–7.35, p < 0.001). These data are important for the ongoing mental health care reforms in the Czech Republic and other countries in the Central and Eastern Europe.