Affiliations 

  • 1 University of Malaya
  • 2 International Medical University
MyJurnal

Abstract

Objective: The aim of the study was to determine the early readmission rate among the psychiatric patients discharged from a teaching hospital in Malaysia. The associated factors were also examined. Methods: This is a prospective and observational study. The socio-demographic and clinical data of 202 patients from the psychiatric ward were collected on discharge along with the administration of instruments including Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), Life Events Questionnaire (LEQ), and Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS). Assessment of compliance to medication and substance use was reliant on self-report data. Medication compliance was categorized as “poor” vs “good”, whereas poor compliance was the complete discontinuation of medication for at least two weeks. The patients were followed up to determine whether they were readmitted within 6 months. Results: At the end of 6 months follow-up, 32.2% of the subjects were readmitted. Univariate regression analysis indicated that patients with psychotic disorder, past episodes, previous admission, poor compliance, on conventional or depot injectable antipsychotic and higher BPRS scores on discharge were significantly associated with early readmission (p