The Case for Psychiatric Hospitalization

The goal of psychiatric treatment is to restore the patient to a reasonable state of mental health. Hospitalization is often considered to be an unnecessarily expensive component of a total treatment program. In our zeal to reduce expense, many patients for whom hospitalization is indicated are either refused admission or are prematurely discharged. The authors suggest that in certain cases the judicious use of hospitalization may be less costly in terms of the overall treatment program and also cite some of the other possible benefits to be gained from a period of hospitalization.