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Psychiatric diagnosis and school placement: A comparison between inpatients and outpatients

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Abstract

The effects of inpatient vs. outpatient status on change in educational placement were examined for a sample of 185 inpatients and 351 outpatients evaluated at a psychiatric facility. Within thesame diagnostic categories, inpatients tended to receceive higher percentages of changes to more-restrictive educational settings than outpatients following evaluation, although such a downward trend was noted for the latter sample as well. The limitations of psychiatric diagnosis to school personnel when making educational placement decisions was discussed.

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Acknowledgment: This study was supported by U.S. Office of Education Grant G0080036 to the UCLA Mental Retardation and Child Psychiatry program. The authors would like to acknowledge Dr. Donald Guthrie of the Computer Resources Group for his valuable assistance with this study.

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Alexson, J., Sinclair, E. Psychiatric diagnosis and school placement: A comparison between inpatients and outpatients. Child Psych Hum Dev 16, 194–205 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00706175

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