Length of Stay and Behavior Patterns of Hospitalized Schizophrenics

A behavioral observation system, which consists of a series of objectively described behavior categories and an apparatus for recording the duration and frequency of ongoing behaviors in each category, was used to study the behavior on the ward of 2l long-term and 21 short-term matched hospitalized schizophrenics. Results of the study supported the major hypothesis that long-term hospitalized schizophrenics show more withdrawn and inappropriate behaviors and fewer social and appropriate behaviors than short-term hospitalized schizophrenics. Among the short-term patients, those hospitalized from four months to one year showed the most adaptive behaviors and the fewest inappropriate behaviors.