EDEN (European Day Hospital Evaluation) study is an international randomized controlled study which compares day care treatment with conventional inpatient treatment. Patients with acute mental disorder, included in this study, were randomized into two groups treated in mentioned therapeutic models. In this article we follow psychopathology improvement, treatment satisfaction and subjective life quality in several time points – at admission, at discharge and during treatment. Our results enable us to resume that psychopathology improved similarly in both groups but patients in day care setting were subjectively more satisfied with their life quality at the end of the treatment period. Treatment satisfaction also increased in both groups alike. In conclusion we can state that day care treatment seems to be, for some patients with acute mental disorder, full scope alternative of conventional hospitalization and in addition it enables their better social integration.

        Key words: day care treatment, conventional impatient treatment, clinical state of the patient, treatment satisfaction, the MANSA questionnaire, the EDEN study.