Background: Globally, studies have established that 40-50% of psychiatric patients with SMDs are readmitted within one year of discharge from the acute hospital admission. Lowand middle-income countries (LMICs) such as Malawi have also reported high rates of psychiatric readmissions. This poses challenges when providing psychiatric care to patients. Most of Malawi`s health institutions, including Saint John of God Psychiatric Hospital (SJOG), rely primarily on donor funding. In order to maximise the available donor funding, there is a need to reduce readmissions resulting from modifiable or controlled factors. There are no studies in Malawi which have investigated these risk factors. The study aimed to establish the frequency of readmissions and the associated factors among patients at SJOG Psychiatric Hospital in Mzuzu, Malawi. The specific areas examined were sociodemographic and clinical-related factors associated with readmission. Methods: This was a retrospective cohort case record review study. Two hundred and seventy five clinical files of patients admitted for the first time at SJOG Psychiatric Hospital Mzuzu, Malawi between 1 January, 2014 and 31 December, 2015 were extracted. Data on socio-demographics and clinical information were collected using an extraction sheet at 3, 6 and 12 months post-discharge from the acute (first) hospital admission. Logistic regression models were developed to investigate the associations between socio-demographics, clinicalrelated factors and readmissions. Ethical approval for this study was granted by the Faculty of Health Sciences Human Research Ethics Committee at the University of Cape Town. Approval to conduct this research in Malawi was obtained from the National Health Sciences Research Ethics Committee. Results: Readmission rates of 1.5%, 4.4%, and 11.3% were found within the 3, 6 and 12 months of discharge from the acute hospital admission respectively. None of the independent variables predicted readmission within the 3 month of discharge from the acute hospital admission. In the unadjusted logistic regression model, having children (OR=0.26, 95% C.I 0.07-0.96) protected against readmissions within the 6 month of follow-up period. In the unadjusted logistic regression model, having children (OR= 0.40, 95% C.I 0.18-0.88), staying outside the hospital catchment area (OR=0.44, 95% C.I 0.20-0.96), and having insight (OR=0.22, 95% C.I 0.10-0.49) into their illness were protective factors to readmission, while taking SGAs (OR=4.67, 95% C.I 1.33-16.39) predicted readmission within the 12 month follow-up period. After adjusting for age and gender in the multivariable analysis, staying outside catchment area (OR=0.33, 95% C.I 0.14-0.79) and having insight (OR=0.19, 95% C.I 0.08-0.46) to their illness were protective factors, while taking SGAs (OR=5.29, 95% C.I 1.43-19.51) remained a predictor of readmission within 12 months of discharge from the acute admission. Conclusion: The findings of this study demonstrated that readmissions are associated with socio-demographic and clinical factors such as catchment area, patient insight into their condition and type of antipsychotics. The study identifies the need to develop interventions targeting the groups at risk of being readmitted.

As concepções sobre a loucura, bem como as formas de tratá-la, vêm sofrendo consideráveis transformações de acordo com a cultura e as épocas. A partir da década de 1990, foi oficializada a Reforma Psiquiátrica no Brasil, dando início à política de desinstitucionalização e reinserção social. Todavia, ainda são verificados alguns desafios, entre estes, as reinternações no setor de internação breve em um hospital psiquiátrico, o que traz sérias consequências, como a propensão a uma nova modalidade de institucionalização. Este estudo teve como objetivos: analisar o fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica no contexto da Atenção Psicossocial, a partir da visão dos pacientes reinternantes em um hospital psiquiátrico público; compreender o processo de reinternação psiquiátrica ao qual o paciente está sujeito; investigar o cenário assistencial e sociofamiliar e suas interferências no fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica; explorar, junto aos pacientes, a existência de perspectivas que vislumbrem saídas às repetidas internações psiquiátricas. Inicialmente, com vistas a sintetizar e analisar a produção científica nacional e internacional acerca do fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica, no contexto da desinstitucionalização, foi realizada uma revisão integrativa da literatura publicada em fontes de pesquisa de impacto que detectou deficiência de estudos que investigassem variáveis psicossociais envolvidas na problemática, bem como ausência da perspectiva do paciente sobre o assunto. O presente estudo fundamentou-se na Atenção Psicossocial, enquanto corpo teórico-prático e ético, e orientou-se pela reabilitação psicossocial como categoria analítica. A Atenção Psicossocial emerge no atual contexto de transição paradigmática, a partir da crise do paradigma da racionalidade científica, e baseia-se no pensamento da complexidade. Para a coleta dos dados, foi aplicado um roteiro de entrevista semiestruturada a 22 pacientes reinternantes no hospital investigado, bem como coletadas informações sociodemográficas constantes dos seus prontuários. Os dados colhidos foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo, por meio da qual foram construídas as seguintes categorias temáticas: Funções e disfunções do tratamento hospitalar: os sentidos da internação psiquiátrica; Tratamento ambulatorial: repetir ou inovar?; A medicação e seus impasses: benefícios e limites percebidos; Família laços e embaraços: uma convivência possível?; A dimensão social extramuros: construindo lugares possíveis; O momento da alta: o que está por vir daqui para frente. A partir da análise dos dados, constatou-se uma combinação de carências: ausência de apoio familiar desejável, inexistência de trabalho ou de ocupação agradável, dificuldade na apropriação do espaço de moradia, falta de redes de apoio ou de laços sociais, insuficiência dos serviços extra-hospitalares e a ineficiência da assistência que resultam na não adesão ao tratamento, incluindo o medicamentoso. Este cenário favorece o isolamento social e contribui para que, nos momentos de crise, não havendo possibilidade de acolhida do sofrimento no serviço, o hospital seja o recurso mais utilizado pelo paciente. Assim, a coexistência de modelos antagônicos, hospitalar e comunitário, produz um novo fenômeno, que, no entanto, reproduz o velho: a reinternação psiquiátrica que leva à reedição da institucionalização. Nessa direção, a reinternação psiquiátrica, como fenômeno atual, desvela o processo ainda inconcluso e não consolidado da Reforma Psiquiátrica, bem como confirma que a efetiva desinstitucionalização só ocorre com a devida substituição do modelo hospitalar pelo modelo de Atenção Psicossocial. / Conceptions about madness, as well as how to treat it, have been undergoing considerable changes according to culture and period. From the 1990s, the Psychiatric Reform was official in Brazil, starting the policy of deinstitutionalization and social reintegration. However, a few challenges are still observed, including the readmissions in the sector of brief hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, which has serious consequences, such as the propensity to a new form of institutionalization. This study aimed to: analyze the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission in the context of Psychosocial Care, from the perspective of readmitted patients in a public psychiatric hospital; understand the process of psychiatric readmission to which the patient is likely to be submitted; investigate the assistance, social and familial scenario and their interference in the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission; explore, together with the patients, the existence of perspectives that envisage other possibilities to repeated psychiatric hospitalizations. Initially, in order to synthesize and analyze the national and international scientific production about the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission in the context of deinstitutionalization, an integrative review of the literature was conducted in research sources of impact. It was found a deficiency of studies that investigate psychosocial variables involved in the problem, as well as an absence of the patient\'s perspective on the subject. The present study was based on the Psychosocial Care, as a theoretical, practical and ethical reference, and was also guided by psychosocial rehabilitation as an analytical category. The Psychosocial Care emerges in the current context of paradigmatic transition, from the crisis of the scientific rationality´s paradigm, and it is based on the thought of complexity. To collect data, a semi-structured interview was applied to 22 readmitted patients in the investigated hospital, as well as the collection of their social and demographic information contained in their hospital records. Data were submitted to content analysis, through which the following thematic categories we developed: Functions and dysfunctions of hospital treatment: the meanings of psychiatric hospitalization; Outpatient treatment: repeat or innovate?; Medication and its impasses: perceived benefits and limits; Family ties and embarrassments: a possible coexistence?; The extramural social dimension: building possible places; The time of discharge: what is to come hereafter. From the data analysis, it was found a combination of deficiencies: lack of desirable family support, lack of pleasant work or occupation, difficulties in the appropriation of the living space, lack of support networks or social ties, lack of outpatient care services and assistance´s inefficiency, that result in noncompliance with treatment, including medication treatment. This scenario favors social isolation and contributes to that, in times of crisis, when there is no possibility of acceptance of suffering in the service, the hospital becomes the most used tool by the patient. Thus, the coexistence of opposing models, hospital and community, produces a new phenomenon, which, however, reproduces the old one: the psychiatric readmission that leads to the repetition of the institutionalization. Accordingly, the psychiatric readmission, as current phenomenon, reveals the unfinished and unbound process of the Psychiatric Reform, and confirms that the effective deinstitutionalization occurs only with proper replacement of the hospital model for the Psychosocial Care model.

As concepções sobre a loucura, bem como as formas de tratá-la, vêm sofrendo consideráveis transformações de acordo com a cultura e as épocas. A partir da década de 1990, foi oficializada a Reforma Psiquiátrica no Brasil, dando início à política de desinstitucionalização e reinserção social. Todavia, ainda são verificados alguns desafios, entre estes, as reinternações no setor de internação breve em um hospital psiquiátrico, o que traz sérias consequências, como a propensão a uma nova modalidade de institucionalização. Este estudo teve como objetivos: analisar o fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica no contexto da Atenção Psicossocial, a partir da visão dos pacientes reinternantes em um hospital psiquiátrico público; compreender o processo de reinternação psiquiátrica ao qual o paciente está sujeito; investigar o cenário assistencial e sociofamiliar e suas interferências no fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica; explorar, junto aos pacientes, a existência de perspectivas que vislumbrem saídas às repetidas internações psiquiátricas. Inicialmente, com vistas a sintetizar e analisar a produção científica nacional e internacional acerca do fenômeno da reinternação psiquiátrica, no contexto da desinstitucionalização, foi realizada uma revisão integrativa da literatura publicada em fontes de pesquisa de impacto que detectou deficiência de estudos que investigassem variáveis psicossociais envolvidas na problemática, bem como ausência da perspectiva do paciente sobre o assunto. O presente estudo fundamentou-se na Atenção Psicossocial, enquanto corpo teórico-prático e ético, e orientou-se pela reabilitação psicossocial como categoria analítica. A Atenção Psicossocial emerge no atual contexto de transição paradigmática, a partir da crise do paradigma da racionalidade científica, e baseia-se no pensamento da complexidade. Para a coleta dos dados, foi aplicado um roteiro de entrevista semiestruturada a 22 pacientes reinternantes no hospital investigado, bem como coletadas informações sociodemográficas constantes dos seus prontuários. Os dados colhidos foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo, por meio da qual foram construídas as seguintes categorias temáticas: Funções e disfunções do tratamento hospitalar: os sentidos da internação psiquiátrica; Tratamento ambulatorial: repetir ou inovar?; A medicação e seus impasses: benefícios e limites percebidos; Família laços e embaraços: uma convivência possível?; A dimensão social extramuros: construindo lugares possíveis; O momento da alta: o que está por vir daqui para frente. A partir da análise dos dados, constatou-se uma combinação de carências: ausência de apoio familiar desejável, inexistência de trabalho ou de ocupação agradável, dificuldade na apropriação do espaço de moradia, falta de redes de apoio ou de laços sociais, insuficiência dos serviços extra-hospitalares e a ineficiência da assistência que resultam na não adesão ao tratamento, incluindo o medicamentoso. Este cenário favorece o isolamento social e contribui para que, nos momentos de crise, não havendo possibilidade de acolhida do sofrimento no serviço, o hospital seja o recurso mais utilizado pelo paciente. Assim, a coexistência de modelos antagônicos, hospitalar e comunitário, produz um novo fenômeno, que, no entanto, reproduz o velho: a reinternação psiquiátrica que leva à reedição da institucionalização. Nessa direção, a reinternação psiquiátrica, como fenômeno atual, desvela o processo ainda inconcluso e não consolidado da Reforma Psiquiátrica, bem como confirma que a efetiva desinstitucionalização só ocorre com a devida substituição do modelo hospitalar pelo modelo de Atenção Psicossocial. / Conceptions about madness, as well as how to treat it, have been undergoing considerable changes according to culture and period. From the 1990s, the Psychiatric Reform was official in Brazil, starting the policy of deinstitutionalization and social reintegration. However, a few challenges are still observed, including the readmissions in the sector of brief hospitalization in a psychiatric hospital, which has serious consequences, such as the propensity to a new form of institutionalization. This study aimed to: analyze the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission in the context of Psychosocial Care, from the perspective of readmitted patients in a public psychiatric hospital; understand the process of psychiatric readmission to which the patient is likely to be submitted; investigate the assistance, social and familial scenario and their interference in the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission; explore, together with the patients, the existence of perspectives that envisage other possibilities to repeated psychiatric hospitalizations. Initially, in order to synthesize and analyze the national and international scientific production about the phenomenon of psychiatric readmission in the context of deinstitutionalization, an integrative review of the literature was conducted in research sources of impact. It was found a deficiency of studies that investigate psychosocial variables involved in the problem, as well as an absence of the patient\'s perspective on the subject. The present study was based on the Psychosocial Care, as a theoretical, practical and ethical reference, and was also guided by psychosocial rehabilitation as an analytical category. The Psychosocial Care emerges in the current context of paradigmatic transition, from the crisis of the scientific rationality´s paradigm, and it is based on the thought of complexity. To collect data, a semi-structured interview was applied to 22 readmitted patients in the investigated hospital, as well as the collection of their social and demographic information contained in their hospital records. Data were submitted to content analysis, through which the following thematic categories we developed: Functions and dysfunctions of hospital treatment: the meanings of psychiatric hospitalization; Outpatient treatment: repeat or innovate?; Medication and its impasses: perceived benefits and limits; Family ties and embarrassments: a possible coexistence?; The extramural social dimension: building possible places; The time of discharge: what is to come hereafter. From the data analysis, it was found a combination of deficiencies: lack of desirable family support, lack of pleasant work or occupation, difficulties in the appropriation of the living space, lack of support networks or social ties, lack of outpatient care services and assistance´s inefficiency, that result in noncompliance with treatment, including medication treatment. This scenario favors social isolation and contributes to that, in times of crisis, when there is no possibility of acceptance of suffering in the service, the hospital becomes the most used tool by the patient. Thus, the coexistence of opposing models, hospital and community, produces a new phenomenon, which, however, reproduces the old one: the psychiatric readmission that leads to the repetition of the institutionalization. Accordingly, the psychiatric readmission, as current phenomenon, reveals the unfinished and unbound process of the Psychiatric Reform, and confirms that the effective deinstitutionalization occurs only with proper replacement of the hospital model for the Psychosocial Care model.