One in seven mood disorder stays and one in five schizophrenia stays are back in hospital within 30 days
AHRQ, 2012: of 847,000 hospital stays for mood disorders, 15.0 percent were readmitted for any cause within 30 days. Of 383,000 stays for schizophrenia, 22.4 percent were.
We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. how we score evidence
Caveat on this rating: Counts stays, not people, and only readmissions within the same state data. 2012 is the most recent brief of this design. Readmission is a measure of system performance as much as of illness.
Before asking what a medication does to the odds of going back to hospital, it helps to know the odds. These are the federal numbers.
Significant findings
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality counted every community hospital stay in 2012: "there were approximately 847,000 hospital stays for mood disorders and 383,000 stays for schizophrenia."
"Within 30 days, 9.0 percent of initial inpatient stays for mood disorders were readmitted with a principal diagnosis of mood disorders, 12.6 percent were readmitted with any diagnosis of mood disorders, and 15.0 percent were readmitted for any cause." For schizophrenia the three figures were 15.7, 18.6 and 22.4 percent. The any-cause rate for all other conditions was 15.4 percent.
Who pays predicts who comes back: "Patients covered by Medicare or Medicaid had higher rates of 30-day readmission involving mood disorders or schizophrenia than did privately insured and uninsured patients (approximately 40-75 percent higher)."
The average stay lasted 6.6 days for mood disorders and 10.4 for schizophrenia, against 4.8 for everything else.
Worth asking
Nearly everyone in these figures was discharged on medication, so they say nothing about whether the drugs help or harm. They say that a psychiatric admission is often not a single event, and that for schizophrenia the month after discharge is more dangerous than it is for the average medical patient. Thirty days is also a short window; the register studies in this library follow people for years and find that about half are back at least once. If you are in crisis in the US, call or text 988.
Source
Hospital Readmissions Involving Psychiatric Disorders, 2012. HCUP Statistical Brief #189 — Heslin KC, Weiss AJ (2015)
How this was scored
- Study design
- not recorded
- Funding
- not recorded
- Published in
- not recorded
- Sample size
- 1,230,000
- Preregistered
- not recorded
- Conflicts disclosed
- not recorded
- Independent of proponent
- not recorded
- Retracted
- No
We have not finished checking this source, so there is no scoring to show yet. “We have not checked this yet” and “this is disputed” are different statements, so no scored band is shown rather than a low one.
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Published September 21, 2026.
Questions
How strong is the evidence behind this?
veisund rates this source "not yet assessed". We have not finished checking this source. No judgement either way. One caveat travels with that badge: Counts stays, not people, and only readmissions within the same state data. 2012 is the most recent brief of this design. Readmission is a measure of system performance as much as of illness. The score is calculated from recorded facts about the source — study design, funding, publication venue, sample size, preregistration — not typed in by an editor.
What is the source for this?
Hospital Readmissions Involving Psychiatric Disorders, 2012. HCUP Statistical Brief #189 — Heslin KC, Weiss AJ (2015). The full source is linked on this page so you can read it yourself.
Is this medical advice?
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.
This is information to bring to your prescriber, not medical advice and not a reason to change anything on your own. Nothing here is an instruction to stop or reduce a medication. If you are in crisis, call or text 988.