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Background Compulsory admission is practiced around the world with legislative variations. The legal status during compulsory hospitalization might be changed to consent or the patient might be discharged against medical advice (AMA), if he no longer poses a risk. Objective In the present study, we investigated the outcome of compulsory admitted patients who left the hospital after commitment period despite request by the treating psychiatrist to remain in the hospital (AMA) vs those who agreed to prolong their hospitalization. Results Of 320 patients with schizophrenia admitted involuntarily, 157 (49%) were discharged without converting to consent, and 163 (51%) agreed to stay in the hospital. There was no difference in baseline clinical and demographic characteristics and outcome measures (rate of readmission, legal status of next admission, and length of stay in the next admission) between the 2 groups. Conclusions Prolongation of length of stay in compulsorily psychiatrist-ordered schizophrenia patients did not affect their rate of rehospitalizations or the length of next admission compared with those who left the hospital immediately after the change in their legal status AMA.

Objective The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between 2 psychological profiles: ( a ) the intrapersonal profile , involving self-critical depression, self-oriented perfectionism, and narcissism, and ( b ) the interpersonal profile , involving dependent depression and socially prescribed perfectionism, and the association of these 2 profiles with suicidal behavior among adolescent inpatients. Methods One hundred adolescents, admitted to a university-affiliated psychiatric adolescent inpatient unit in Israel, completed the Depressive Experience Questionnaire for Adolescents, the Child and Adolescent Perfectionism Scale, and the Narcissistic Personality Inventory. The Suicidal Potential Interview was used to evaluate suicidal behavior and separate them into low-risk and high-risk groups. Results Dependent depression correlated positively and significantly with severity of suicidal behavior. Adolescent inpatients with high levels of suicidal behavior (n = 54) were more dependent in terms of depression and were more inclined to socially prescribed perfectionism compared with adolescent inpatients with low levels of suicidal behavior (n = 45). The components of the intrapersonal profile did not correlate with severity of suicidal behavior; however, low narcissism scores characterized the psychological function that strongly predicted severe suicidal behavior. Conclusions The findings indicated that the conceptualization of 2 broad intrapersonal and interpersonal profiles in adolescent inpatients may have some validity in terms of the interpersonal dimension. The components of the interpersonal profile related to severe suicidal behavior and may be important in planning treatment strategy.

Background McGurk effect is a perceptual phenomenon that reflects the integration of visual and auditory information during speech perception. Using McGurk effect, the authors examined the audiovisual integration in adolescents and adults with schizophrenia as compared with healthy volunteers. Sampling and Methods Thirty hospitalized patients with schizophrenia and 20 age-matched healthy controls were examined for perception of ambiguous audiovisual stimuli. Results The mean of McGurk-positive responses was significantly lower in adolescent patients with schizophrenia than in healthy adolescents (3.13 ± 2.09 vs 5.60 ± 0.7, respectively; t = 3.591, P = .001). The McGurk-positive responses were significantly higher in healthy adolescents than in healthy adults (5.60 ± 0.7 vs 3.60 ± 1.43, respectively; t = 3.974, P = .001). No significant difference in McGurk-positive responses was found between adults with schizophrenia and healthy adult individuals, or between adolescent and adults with schizophrenia. Duration of schizophrenia, soft sign status, type of symptoms, and type of antipsychotic medication showed no influence on the audiovisual integration ability. Conclusions (I) Age effect: It seems that the audiovisual integrative function increases from childhood to adolescence and decreases from adolescence to early adulthood. (II) Schizophrenia: Audiovisual integration is poor in adolescent and adult patients with schizophrenia. Thus, it seems that schizophrenia is associated with early and persistent impairment in the development of the audiovisual integration ability. (III) Reliance on visual cue stimuli: Although several previous investigations concluded that patients with schizophrenia rely less on visual cue stimuli than healthy controls, our data suggest that this is true only for specific types of visual cue stimuli.