The effect of the therapeutic milieu in the psychiatric hospital on the communication behavior of discharged psychiatric patients with one another

The effectiveness of a social-psychiatrically orientated clinic was compared to a traditionally led ward on the communication behaviour of discharged patients. The random test of the questionnaire study included 120 patients. Patients of the two establishments who had experienced one or several depressive phases showed no differences. Patients with the diagnosis "schizophrenia" from the social-psychiatrically working clinic showed significant differences in the strived-for and actually realised communication behaviour compared with the more communicatively impaired patients with the same diagnosis of the ward run according to traditional practice.