Gender has been found to be a significant factor in quality of life in patients with psychiatric disorders. Compliance on the other hand is something that psychiatric patients are usually not familiar with.

To explore the way that gender effects compliance in patients with mental problems.

To see the influence of gender in readmissions, days of hospitalization and compliance to therapy.

133 (60, 7%) males and 86 (39, 3%) females participated in the study. Chi square test and independent sample t test were performed with SPSS16. DASS42 and SRQ questionnaires were administered to all patients in admission and at the end of the treatment. Compliance to therapy required low scores to both of them at the end of the treatment and the consent of the psychiatrist who were responsible for each patient. Six months after the exit of the Department readmissions were explored.

No significant difference was found in days of hospitalization with t test. The proportion of men who had a good compliance to therapy was 0.66 whereas the proportion from women was 0.86. The difference in proportions is significant, χ² (2, N=219) =17.43, p<0.001. The proportion of women who had a readmission through a 6 months period was 0.13 whereas the proportion from men was 0.25. The difference in proportions is significant, χ² (1, N=219) =4.76, p<0.05.

It seems that women show better compliance to treatment so they have less readmissions than men.