A comparison of residents discharged from a token economy and two traditional psychiatric programs

Rate of discharge from mental hospitals has been justifiably criticized as a measure of treatment effectiveness. The present study attempted to overcome some of these criticisms by evaluating additional data on discharged residents. Female residents discharged from a token economy and two traditional psychiatric programs were compared on a number of variables. During the first 14-month period of operation, 33 residents participated in the token economy. Subjects were randomly selected from each of the comparison wards on dates corresponding to the dates residents entered the token economy. No significant difference between the total populations of the token economy and the two traditional programs was found with respect to the variables of length of continuous hospitalization, age, diagnosis, marital status, and education. However, length of continuous hospitalization was significantly greater for those residents discharged from the token economy (mean=15.81 years) when compared to those residents discharged from either of the comparison programs (mean=2.11 and 0.66 years). It is suggested that this difference is due to the token economy, which concentrated on eliminating nonfunctional behaviors while developing adaptive behaviors.