Retrospective audit: depressive neurosis.

The charts of 100 patients with a primary diagnosis of depressive neurosis were subjected to retrospective audit using a format adapted from the American Psychiatric Association's Model Criteria Sets. Nineteen of the 33 unjustified variations from the audit criteria involved variations from the 8-28 day length of hospital stay. The author raises the question of whether the lower limit of 8 days is sufficiently flexible to permit hospitalization of acutely suicidal patients who can be discharged to outpatient care in less than 8 days.