A Comparison of Patients Discharged Against Medical Advice with a Matched Control Group

This study examines prospective admission and follow-up variables by comparing 21 psychiatric patients leaving an institutional facility against medical advice (AMA) with 21 control patients. The authors conclude that leaving AMA is not necessarily detrimental to patients three or six months after discharge, that the patient may actually be running toward health rather than away from treatment, that the AMA patients have a different relationship with the staff than non-AMA patients, and that effort might be spent in educating the staff and milieu that an AMA discharge may be beneficial therapeutically rather than a negative occurrence.