A group of 24 "new chronic" schizophrenic inpatients was compared with a group of 19 daypatients matched for duration of current care; both had spent between 1 and 6 years in continuous inpatient or daypatient care. The groups were compared on a variety of clinical, demographic, and social variables to identify specific variables that might distinguish the new chronic inpatient group. Despite a few nonsignificant trends in the data, the groups were found not to differ significantly on any variables. Both groups had long psychiatric histories with many previous hospital admissions, presented many negative symptoms of schizophrenia at interview, were quite disabled in terms of self-care and speech skills, had a low incidence of behavioural disturbance and had few contacts outside of the hospital. The majority of both groups expressed a clear preference for community care. The results therefore highlight the urgent need for more comprehensive and detailed assessment of patients in relation to decisions about retention in or discharge from inpatient hospital care and also the need to identify objective predictors of the success of such decisions.