[Social performance expectations in psychiatric patients of a general hospital ward].

OBJECTIVE To prospectively assess the performance of socially expected activities of psychiatric patients in the first year after their discharge from a psychiatric ward of a general hospital. Also, to evaluate the patients' and their family' expectations on the former's performance. METHODS The study was carried out in a general hospital in Ribeirão Preto, Brazil. The Katz Scale was applied to the patient and their family informer at the time of hospitalization regarding to the week preceding admission, and at one, six and 12 months after hospital discharge, regarding to the preceding week. Of the 86 pairs who were initially included in the study, 55 patients (33 women and 22 men) and their respective family informers completed the study. Performance scores and expectations were compared using variance (ANOVA) and t-student test. RESULTS Expectation did not show significant variations either in the patient's evaluation or in the family's evaluation. According to both evaluations, expectation was significantly higher than performance. A significant improvement in the performance of socially expected activities was observed as early as one month after discharge compared to the pre-admission period and was unchanged along the first year in both evaluations of the patient and their family. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that admission to a psychiatric ward of a general hospital, in addition to reducing the psychiatric symptoms, contributed to improving the performance of socially expected activities. The average level of performance was unchanged throughout the first year after discharge, although demographic and medical variables can influence these results.