Inpatient care in an eastern and a western European area. A comparative case-register study.

Inpatient point-prevalence and admission rates in both mental hospitals and psychiatric wards in general hospitals in East Bohemia and in Drenthe (the Netherlands) were compared. A higher point-prevalence rate was found in Drenthe as there was a higher rate of long-stay patients. However, in East Bohemia the admission rates were higher for all diagnostic categories, except for neuroses, the admission rates for neuroses were twice as high in Drenthe.

[Utilization of psychiatric care].

The paper is an introduction to a series of articles summarizing hitherto assembled results in the research task P 12-335-806 DU 05 "Reflection of the biopsychosocial background of mental disorders on the consumption of health care" and deals with the first stage 01 "Improvement of the psychiatric information system". It gives an outline of the development of the psychiatric information system in Czechoslovakia, an account of the shortcomings of its present state and proposals for its improvement based on an automated psychiatric case register.

[Initial experience with elements of the clinical psychology information system].

The authors report on their initial experience with the evaluation of standard records of psychological examinations in a mental asylum. These evaluations are limited by the assembled indicators, but despite these limitations they help to give an idea on the usefulness of psychological examinations. The author discusses also other possibilities how to develop the clinical psychological information system.