Persistence of impaired functioning and psychological distress after medical hospitalization for men with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders

OBJECTIVE: To measure the persistence of impaired health-related quality of life (HRQL) and psychological distress associated with co-occurring psychiatric and substance use disorders in a longitudinal sample of medically hospitalized male veterans. DESIGN:A random sample followed observationally for 1 year after study enrollment. SETTING: Inpatient medical and surgical wards at three university-affiliated Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Centers. PATIENTS/PARTICIPANTS: A random sample of 1,007 admissions to medical and surgical inpatient services, excluding women and admissions for psychiatric reasons, A subset of participants (n = 736) was designated for longitudinal follow-up assessments at 3 and 12 months after study enrollment. This subset was selected to include all possible participants with study-administered psychiatric diagnoses (52%) frequency-matched by date of study enrollment to approximately equivalent numbers of participants without psychiatric diagnoses (48%). MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: All participants were administered a computerized, structured psychiatric diagnostic interview for 13 psychiatric disorders (including substance use) and received longitudinal assessments at 3 and 12 months on a multidimensional measure of HRQL, the SF-36, and a measure of psychological distress, the Symptom Checklist, 90-item version. On average, HRQL declined and psychological distress increased over time (P < .05). Psychiatric disorders were associated with significantly greater impairments in functioning and increased distress on all measures (P < .001) except physical functioning (p < .05). These results were replicated in the patients (n = 130) who received inpatient or outpatient mental health or substance abuse services. CONCLUSIONS: General medical physicians need to evaluate the mental health status of their hospitalized and seriously ill patients. Effective mental health interventions can be initiated posthospitalization, either immediately in primary care or through referral to appropriate specialty care, and should improve health functioning over time.