Biomedical subjects
Claire Henderson
Publications and source records attributed to Claire Henderson.
Joint crisis plans for people with psychosis: economic evaluation of a randomised controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate the cost effectiveness of joint crisis plans, a form of advance agreement for people with severe mental illness. DESIGN: Single blind randomised controlled trial. SETTING: Eight community mental health teams in southern England. PARTICIPANTS: 160 people with a diagnosis of psychotic illness or non-psychotic bipolar disorder who had been admitted to hospital at least once within the previous two years. INTERVENTION: Joint crisis plan formulated by the patient, care coordinator, psychiatrist, and project worker containing contact information, details of illnesses, treatments, relapse indicators, and advance statements of preferences for care for future relapses. Control group was standardised service information. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Admission to hospital; service use over 15 months. RESULTS: Use of a joint crisis plan was associated with less service use and lower costs on average than in the standardised service information group, but differences were not significant. Total costs during follow-up were 7264 pounds sterling (10,616 euros, 13,560 dollars) for each participant with a joint crisis plan and 8359 pounds sterling (12,217 euros, 15,609 dollars) for each participant with standardised service information (mean difference 1095 pounds sterling; 95% confidence interval -2814 to 5004). Cost effectiveness acceptability curves, used to explore uncertainty in estimates of costs and effects, suggest there is a greater than 78% probability that joint crisis plans are more cost effective than standardised service information in reducing the proportion of patients admitted to hospital. CONCLUSION: Joint crisis plans produced a non-significant decrease in admissions and total costs. Though the cost estimates had wide confidence intervals, the associated uncertainty suggests there is a relatively high probability of the plans being more cost effective than standardised service information for people with psychotic disorders.
Do community treatment orders for mental illness reduce readmission to hospital? An epidemiological study.
BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that community treatment orders (CTOs) will prevent readmission to hospital, but controlled studies have been inconclusive. We aimed to test the hypothesis that hospital discharges made subject to CTOs are associated with a reduced risk of readmission. The use of such a measure is likely to change after its introduction as clinicians acquire familiarity with it, and we also tested the hypothesis that the characteristics of patients subject to CTOs changed over time in the first decade of their use in Victoria, Australia. METHOD: A database from Victoria, Australia (total population 4.8 million) was used. Cox proportional hazard models compared the hazard ratios of readmission to hospital before the end of the study period (1992-2000) for 16,216 discharges subject to a CTO and 112,211 not subject to a CTO. RESULTS: Community treatment orders used on discharge from a first admission to hospital were associated with a higher risk of readmission, but CTOs following subsequent admissions were associated with lower readmission risk. The risk also declined over the study period. CONCLUSIONS: The effect of using a CTO depends on the patient's history. At a population level their introduction may not reduce readmission to hospital. Their impact may change over time. DECLARATION OF INTEREST: None.
Neighbourhood characteristics, individual level socioeconomic factors, and depressive symptoms in young adults: the CARDIA study.
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate the relation between neighbourhood socioeconomic and ethnic characteristics with depressive symptoms in a population based sample. DESIGN: Cross sectional data from the CARDIA study, including the Center for Epidemiological Studies depression scale score (CES-D). Neighbourhoods were 1990 US census blocks of 1000 people; six census variables reflecting wealth/income, education, and occupation investigated separately and as a summary score; neighbourhood racial composition (percentage white and black) and individual level income and education were also examined. SETTING: Participants recruited in 1985/86 from community lists in Birmingham, AL; Chicago, IL; Minneapolis MN; from a health plan in Oakland, CA. PARTICIPANTS: 3437 adults aged 28-40 years in 1995/96: 24% white men, 27% white women, 20% black men, 29% black women. MAIN RESULTS: For each race-sex group, CES-D was inversely related to neighbourhood score and individual income and education. Associations of neighbourhood score with CES-D became weak and inconsistent after adjusting for individual level factors; personal income remained strongly and inversely associated with CES-D. Age adjusted mean differences (standard errors) in CES-D between the lowest and highest income categories were 3.41 (0.62) for white men, 4.57 (0.64) for white women, 5.80 (0.87) for black men, and 5.74 (0.83) for black women. For both black and white participants, CES-D was associated negatively with percentage of white people and positively with percentage of black people in their census block, before, but not after, adjustment for individual and neighbourhood socioeconomic variables. CONCLUSIONS: Neither neighbourhood socioeconomic characteristics nor ethnic density were consistently related to depressive symptoms once individual socioeconomic characteristics were taken into account.
Effect of joint crisis plans on use of compulsory treatment in psychiatry: single blind randomised controlled trial.
OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether a form of advance agreement for people with severe mental illness can reduce the use of inpatient services and compulsory admission or treatment. DESIGN: Single blind randomised controlled trial, with randomisation of individual patients. The investigator was blind to allocation. SETTING: Eight community mental health teams in southern England. PARTICIPANTS: 160 people with an operational diagnosis of psychotic illness or non-psychotic bipolar disorder who had experienced a hospital admission within the previous two years. INTERVENTION: The joint crisis plan was formulated by the patient, care coordinator, psychiatrist, and project worker and contained contact information, details of mental and physical illnesses, treatments, indicators for relapse, and advance statements of preferences for care in the event of future relapse. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Admission to hospital, bed days, and use of the Mental Health Act over 15 month follow up. RESULTS: Use of the Mental Health Act was significantly reduced for the intervention group, 13% (10/80) of whom experienced compulsory admission or treatment compared with 27% (21/80) of the control group (risk ratio 0.48, 95% confidence interval 0.24 to 0.95, P = 0.028). As a consequence, the mean number of days of detention (days spent as an inpatient while under a section of the Mental Health Act) for the whole intervention group was 14 compared with 31 for the control group (difference 16, 0 to 36, P = 0.04). For those admitted under a section of the Mental Health Act, the number of days of detention was similar in the two groups (means 114 and 117, difference 3, -61 to 67, P = 0.98). The intervention group had fewer admissions (risk ratio 0.69, 0.45 to 1.04, P = 0.07). There was no evidence for differences in bed days (total number of days spent as an inpatient) (means 32 and 36, difference 4, -18 to 26, P = 0.15 for the whole sample; means 107 and 83, difference -24, -72 to 24, P = 0.39 for those admitted). CONCLUSIONS: Use of joint crisis plans reduced compulsory admissions and treatment in patients with severe mental illness. The reduction in overall admission was less. This is the first structured clinical intervention that seems to reduce compulsory admission and treatment in mental health services.
The effects of US state income inequality and alcohol policies on symptoms of depression and alcohol dependence.
Mental health is likely to be influenced by contextual variables that emerge only at the level of the group. We studied the effect of two such group-level variables, within-state income inequality and alcohol tax policy, on symptoms of current depression and alcohol dependence in a US national sample, controlling for state-level and individual characteristics. A cross-sectional US national probability sample provided the individual-level data. State income data were obtained from the 1990 US census. The Gini coefficient (raw and adjusted) indicated income inequality. Outcome measures included current symptoms of depression and alcohol dependence. Controlling for individual-level variables and state median income, the odds of depressive symptoms was not positively associated with state income inequality. Controlling for individual-level variables, state median income and alcohol distribution method, a weak negative association between Gini and alcohol dependence was observed in women, but this association disappeared after additional adjustment for beer tax. No association was observed in men. Higher state beer tax was significantly associated with lower prevalence of alcohol dependence symptoms for both men and women. The results suggest that state income inequality does not increase the experience of alcohol dependence or depression symptoms. However, evidence was found for a protective effect of increased beer taxation against alcohol dependence symptoms, suggesting the need to further consider the impact of alcohol policies on alcohol use disorders.
Cross-cultural differences in the conceptualisation of patients' satisfaction with psychiatric services--content validity of the English version of the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale.
BACKGROUND: The VSSS is a multi-dimensional questionnaire developed to address methodological concerns about measurement of satisfaction with services on the part of psychiatric patients. The acceptability, sensitivity, content validity and test-retest reliability of the original version of the VSSS, in Italian, have already been demonstrated [1, 2]. The internal consistency [3] and test-retest reliability [4] of the English translation have been shown to be within acceptable ranges. The content validity of the original 82-item and the 54-item English version has not yet been assessed. AIMS: The aims of this study were to assess the content validity of the English translation of the VSSS and to compare it with that of the original version in Italian. METHOD: We used data collected as part of the first wave (T1) of the PRiSM Psychosis Study [5] and repeated the methods used to assess the content validity of the original Italian version of the VSSS [1, 2]. Content elements derived from answers to four open questions were rated independently by CH and HH in terms of their equivalence to VSSS items or dimensions. RESULTS: were compared to those from the content validity study of the Italian version. Results Inter-rater agreement was very high. The largest proportion of the content elements of the answers were rated as equivalent or related to a questionnaire item or a dimension of the VSSS. The dimension 'Professionals' Skills and Behaviour' appears the most significant contributor to satisfaction, as it was most often related to content elements in answers to all four key questions (39.1 %). The second most frequently mentioned dimension was that of 'Types of Intervention' for three out of four open questions, while 'Access' was second most frequent for the fourth. Of the content elements, 17.2 % did not include items or dimensions covered by the VSSS; the three most frequently mentioned were other patients, food and security. CONCLUSIONS: The 82-item English version of the VSSS captures sharply most contents relevant to patients' satisfaction. Consideration of contributors to satisfaction so far neglected may refine the conceptualisation of satisfaction.
A welfare benefits outreach project to users of community mental health services.
BACKGROUND: Many psychiatric service users are entitled to welfare benefits, but work from the UK and the USA suggests many are either unaware of their entitlements or find the benefits system difficult to access. AIMS: This study has four aims: 1) to assess the extent to which people using a range of community mental health services receive the welfare benefits to which they are entitled; 2) to calculate the impact on income of receiving help from specialist benefits advisors; 3) to ascertain sociodemographic risk factors for under-claiming; and 4) to identify reasons for under-claiming related to the claims system itself, in order to make recommendations for routine practice. METHODS: This report makes use of data collected during a welfare benefit uptake project by Mind in Croydon staff (MF-G, RO, RP). Benefit assessments were offered to a total of 153 people attending any Croydon resource centre (run by the Health Service) other than the pilot site, or day centre (run by Social Services) for people with mental health problems. All those who were identified as under-claiming were offered help pursuing claims through to conclusion. We used quantitative methods to address the first three aims; qualitative methods in the form of case studies were used to address the fourth. RESULTS: One-third (34%) of people seen were getting their correct entitlement and two-thirds (66%) were under-claiming. All those found to be under-claiming who accepted all the help offered (87 out of 99 underclaimants) did gain additional benefits as a result, of a mean annual amount of pound 3079 each. Under-claiming was more frequent in those under 65 years of age, but having had previous advice or having a care manager did not protect against under-claiming. A number of reasons for under-claiming were identified. CONCLUSIONS: For a large and possibly increasing proportion of people using community mental health services, the current benefits system necessitates frequent advice and help by expert advisers to avoid poverty due to underclaiming. The adverse effects on quality of life and mental health may be significant, as are the economic implications of correcting this level of under-claiming.
Acknowledgement of psychiatric research funding.
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Evidence-based prevention strategies of suicide behavior in the world: implications for Slovenia.
In this review we consider how Slovenia could consider tackling its high rate of suicide (overall 29 per 100,000, 46 in males, 13 in females). First, we consider the evidence for risk factors that may contribute to Slovenia's high rate of suicide. Second, we describe the interventions to try to reduce the impact of these factors and the evidence for such interventions. We categorize interventions in terms of their operation at either the population level or that of high-risk groups. However, it should be borne in mind that settings often assumed to provide access to population groups, such as general practice and schools, do not reach some people who are likely to be at high risk; for example those who have dropped out of school or who have been excluded from a GP's list. We focus particularly on those for high-risk groups, as a number of East-European countries with high suicide rates such as Slovenia, Hungary, and the Baltic republics are currently considering a shift toward more community-based mental health services. The provision of community mental health services in Slovenia would provide an opportunity to study their impact on the suicide rate. However, we conclude that their development should be accompanied by other initiatives operating at population levels. This multilevel approach acknowledges the complexity of the etiology of suicide, the impossibility of reaching all those at risk through services and the lack of strong evidence for any one intervention.