Abstract
Two cohorts of first admission schizophrenics, one group (N=116) before and the other (N=125) after the introduction of tranquillizing drugs, were compared with respect to (a) length of stay in hospital for each admission, and (b) number of readmissions. It was found that a significant decrease in the length of hospitalization for each admission was associated with the introduction of tranquillizers. No significant differences among the two cohorts were found with respect to the number of readmissions. Thus, no evidence was found to support the claim that a decrease in length of hospitalization has resulted in a larger number of readmissions, that is, in a faster turn-over of patients. The difficulties of assigning the decrease in the average length of hospitalization to the direct effects of tranquillizers were discussed.