The ‘honeymoon effect’ and ‘gate fever’ in a secure forensic adolescent psychiatric hospital: Do they exist?

Abstract

There is limited research that comments on whether there are recurring patterns for incidents or significant events during inpatient admissions to psychiatric units. This is even more so the case for an adolescent population. This study looked at 30 consecutive female patient admissions to Bluebird House, a medium secure adolescent unit in the South of England, to identify whether both the ‘honeymoon effect’ (low incident rate in the first 28 days following admission) and ‘gate fever’ (high incident rate in the last 28 days prior to discharge) were identifiable phenomena. Analysis of the incident rate found that in our secure adolescent population, the number of incidents both in the first week and at the first 28 days was higher in comparison to the whole admission. We also did not find a consistent increase in incidents in the final 28 days of the admission.