[The effectiveness of inpatient treatment of psychoses-Initial results of a naturalistic study].

Background: An important pillar in the treatment of patients with psychotic disorders is inpatient care. While the efficacy of psychotherapeutic and pharmacological interventions for psychotic disorders is based on broad scientific evidence, there is a lack of naturalistic studies demonstrating the effectiveness of inpatient treatment.

Methodology: Interviews and questionnaires on symptoms, quality of life, and level of functioning were collected from 65 patients with psychotic disorders who were treated on a specialized ward according to current guidelines at the beginning of the hospital stay and on discharge.

Results: The inpatient stay led to an improvement in overall symptoms as well as positive and affective symptoms, disorganization, level of functioning, and quality of life, but not in negative symptoms. In addition, an improvement of insights into the disorder was observed. The self-rating of positive symptoms was consistent with the observer rating at both time points.

Discussion: Improvements were apparent in all symptom categories, except for negative symptoms. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of inpatient therapy according to current guidelines for the treatment of schizophrenia and underline the necessity of providing patients with psychosis with a comprehensive therapeutic offer also in the inpatient context.