Making mental health services work at the primary level.
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Humans↗
Biomedical subjects
M Tansella
Publications and source records attributed to M Tansella.
Prevalence and 12-month outcome of threshold and subthreshold mental disorders in primary care.
BACKGROUND: The authors investigated the occurrence and 12-month outcome of mental disorders in primary care setting. METHOD: Out of 1555 primary care patients screened in an index period in 16 primary care clinics, 457 subjects were selected for the second phase interview with the CIDI and 250 subjects completed the assessment. Of these, 116 patients (49 ICD-10 cases and 67 subthreshold cases) completed the 12-month follow-up evaluation. RESULTS: Overall, 12.4% of consecutive primary care attenders had a current ICD-10 disorder and 14.2% had a subthreshold mental disorder. Psychiatric comorbidity was found in 45% of the initial sample. Physicians recognized the presence of a mental disorder at baseline in 84.6% of cases with depression comorbid with anxiety and in 44.8% of subthreshold cases. Subthreshold cases outnumbered by three times threshold cases in terms of remission after one year. However, 18% of subthreshold conditions showed no improvement after 12 months. Recognition of mental disorder by the physician at baseline was not associated with an improvement of psychopathology after 12 months, but was associated with an improvement in occupational disability and self-reported disability among threshold cases. CONCLUSIONS: Mental disorders are frequent in primary care but their outcome is relatively independent from recognition by the physician. Threshold cases have a worse 12-month outcome than subthreshold cases. However, a substantial outcome variability seems to characterize different diagnostic subgroups both in threshold and subthreshold cases.
Adolescent↗
Translating ethical principles into outcome measures for mental health service research.
BACKGROUND: Mental health service research continues to use only outcome measures that are available rather than develop measures that are important. This paper argues that it is necessary to select and then define a set of ethical principles that can be operationalized and validated as outcome measures to provide a wider balance of information for health policy and clinical service decisions. METHODS: The method used is to adopt a five stage procedure: (i) to select ethical principles most directly relevant for mental health services and their evaluation at the local level; (ii) to propose definitions of these principles; (iii) to validate these definitions; (iv) to translate the defined principles into operationalized outcome measures; and (v) to use these outcome measures in mental health services research, within the context of evidence-based medicine. RESULTS: We address steps (i) and (ii) of this five-stage procedure. Nine principles are selected and defined: autonomy, continuity, effectiveness, accessibility, comprehensiveness, equity, accountability, coordination and efficiency. These principles can together be referred to as the three ACEs. CONCLUSIONS: Of these nine principles, only two (effectiveness and efficiency) have so far been fully translated into quantitative outcome measures, upon which the evidence-based medicine approach depends. We propose that further concepts also be developed into a more complete multidimensional range of fully operationalized outcome measures.
Beneficence↗
Evaluating psychiatric morbidity in a general hospital: a two-phase epidemiological survey.
BACKGROUND: This study aimed to assess psychiatric morbidity and to collect information on disability, life events and family support in a representative sample of patients admitted to a general hospital. METHODS: On the basis of information collected in a pilot study a systematic sample of patients consecutively admitted to seven general medical and seven surgical wards of the Academic General Hospital of Verona was selected and interviewed using a two-phase screening procedure and standardized instruments (GHQ-12, HADS, BDQ and CIDI-PHC). All data were analysed using appropriately weighted logistic regression procedures. RESULTS: A total of 1039 patients completed the GHQ-12 and 298 (28.7%) were high-scorers: 363 patients were interviewed with CIDI-PHC. The prevalence of ICD-10 cases was 26.1%. The most common psychiatric diagnoses were current depression (12.8%) and generalized anxiety disorder (10.8%), followed by alcohol related disorders (5 %). A higher prevalence of ICD-10 cases was found in medical wards, among females, patients older than 24 years, unemployed and separated/divorced people. Life events were associated with psychopathology, and so was the number of disability days. Although 49.8% of ICD-10 cases were identified by the hospital doctors as having a psychological disorder, 23.1% of ICD-10 cases were referred to the liaison psychiatric service. CONCLUSION: The results of the present study stress the need to collect epidemiologically-based data on psychological disorders and their recognition not only in general practice, but also in general hospital settings, in order to have a more complete picture of the pathways to specialist care.
Academic Medical Centers↗
Two-phase epidemiological surveys in psychiatric research.
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Epidemiologic Methods↗
The EPSILON study of schizophrenia in five European countries. Design and methodology for standardising outcome measures and comparing patterns of care and service costs.
BACKGROUND: There is a lack of cross-national research on care for people with schizophrenia. AIMS: To produce standardised European versions of five instruments in key areas of mental health service research in five languages, and to compare data from five European countries regarding patients with schizophrenia and mental health care provision and costs. METHOD: Five centres, in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London, Santander and Verona, participated. Instruments assessing needs, service use, informal career involvement, quality of life, and service satisfaction were subjected to a conversion procedure including translation, back-translation, focus group discussion and reliability assessment. Patients of local mental health services with a Schedules for Clinical Assessment in Neuropsychiatry diagnosis of schizophrenia were interviewed. RESULTS: Service provision varied between sites; 404 patients were studied. Instrument reliability was found to be good. CONCLUSIONS: The instruments developed were reliable across the range of countries, and will facilitate future comparative health service research.
Adolescent↗
Sex differences in the prevalence and detection of depressive and anxiety disorders in general health care settings: report from the World Health Organization Collaborative Study on Psychological Problems in General Health Care.
BACKGROUND: Understanding the relevance of biological and social factors to sex differences in the prevalence and detection of depressive and anxiety disorders has been impaired by the lack of standardized research methods across cultures. METHOD: Prevalence rates of depressive and anxiety disorders were assessed using a 2-stage design from 26,969 patients attending for primary care in 15 centers from 4 continents. Logistic regression analysis was used to examine sex differences in prevalence and detection across centers. RESULTS: Odds ratios for women compared with men of current depression (1.60; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.37-1.86) and agoraphobia or panic (1.63; 95% CI, 1.18-2.20) were consistent across centers. The odds ratio for generalized anxiety varied among centers: 3 groups of centers were identified with odds ratios of 0.46 (95% CI, 0.27-0.78), 1.34 (95% CI, 1.08-1.66), and 3.09 (95% CI, 1.60-5.89). There was no sex difference in the detection of depressive and anxiety disorders by physicians across centers. CONCLUSIONS: The absence of a sex-by-center effect for current depression and agoraphobia or panic disorder is consistent with biological and psychosocial factors, either interacting or working alone, that have a similar final effect across cultures. It does not support the idea that sex differences in prevalence are caused by local psychosocial factors that vary from country to country. The variation in the odds ratio for generalized anxiety disorder offers some support to the idea that there are local differences between the centers contributing to the sex difference in rates. Patients' sex does not appear to affect the likelihood of current depression and anxiety being detected by primary care physicians.
Agoraphobia↗
Unplanned first contact as a predictor of future intensive use of mental health services.
The scheduled appointment system, widely used in most mental health services, has never been evaluated. This study attempts such an evaluation within a community-based mental health service that permits unplanned access to specialist care, by comparing further service use of first-episode patients who come unannounced to seek psychiatric care with that of patients with a planned (scheduled) initial appointment. All patients with first lifetime psychiatric contact who contacted psychiatric services reporting to the South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register between 1 January 1982 and 31 December 1989 (n = 1261) were identified. A total of 1056 patients entered the study and were followed for 2 years. Poisson regression with the generalised estimating equation (GEE) method (to take into account both overdispersion of contacts between subjects and correlation between contacts within subjects) was used to evaluate the effects of the type of first-ever contact (defined as planned or unplanned according to whether or not a regular appointment was previously arranged) and of other selected variables, including sociodemographic characteristics, on the annual rate of planned and unplanned care in the follow-up period. Thirty-six percent of first-ever contacts were unplanned. Patients who began with unplanned contact, as compared with others, were more often widowed, separated or divorced, unemployed and with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or organic psychosis. Moreover, they had, in the following 2 years, significantly higher rates of both unplanned and planned community care, as well as more in-patient care (higher admission rate and a longer mean length of stay). These results at follow-up were confirmed when the rates for the type of first-ever contact were adjusted for all other clinical and sociodemographic variables at initial contact. Step-down Poisson multiple regression analysis showed that the rates of both unplanned and planned contacts in the follow-up period were significantly and independently associated with: type of first-ever contact, diagnosis and type of service first contacted. Unplanned cases at initial contact require particular attention and are confirmed as at risk for placing higher demands on mental health services in the following 2 years. The results of the present study may also have implications for other, non-psychiatric health services.
Adolescent↗
A conceptual framework for mental health services: the matrix model.
BACKGROUND: The reform of mental health services needs to be guided by an overall conceptual framework. Such a framework is important to avoid many risks, including extrapolating from a specific service site to other services, without taking into account local and regional variables. METHODS: A conceptual framework, the 'matrix model', is proposed. This model has been developed using the most relevant information that is necessary for describing and interpreting mental health services data as well as patient-based information. RESULTS: The 'matrix model' has two dimensions: the geographical, which refers to three levels (country, local and patient) and the temporal, which refers to three phases (inputs, processes and outcomes). Using these two dimensions a nine-cell matrix is constructed to bring into focus critical issues for mental health services. The relevance of each level and each phase is briefly presented. CONCLUSIONS: The matrix is intended to assist clinicians, planners and researchers to deal with clinical phenomena, organizational issues, and research questions that share a degree of complexity that render inadequate analyses and the interventions made only at one level. The matrix model applies particularly to mental health systems of care that are provided with a public health framework, and is less useful for contexts that consist of clinicians offering only one-to-one treatments, within fragmented programmes of care.
Case Management↗
The costs of community-based psychiatric care for first-ever patients. A case register study.
BACKGROUND: Analysing costs measures in conjunction with psychiatric case register (PCR) data can provide important epidemiologically-based information on resource utilization. Costing the service use patterns of first-ever patients can indicate the shape and likely resource consequences for mental health services operating within a community-based system of care. METHODS: Yearly costs were calculated for the 299 first-ever patients and 768 longer-term patients who contacted the South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 1993. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare costs between these groups and to test the associations between costs and the sociodemographic and diagnostic data recorded on the PCR. RESULTS: For all diagnostic groups identified, first-ever patients were found to be less costly to support than longer-term patients, even after adjustment for various factors, including whether patients were single consulters. When multivariate analyses were employed, between 20% and 69% of the cost variation for first-ever patients could be explained by patient and other characteristics, and the effect of the contact (first or subsequent) variable was reduced. CONCLUSION: This study considered only the costs to the specialist psychiatric services but the methodology allows the likely annual resource implications of supporting new patients to be predicted from data collected at first contact. Such information can help ensure that services are adequately funded and that the resources are deployed appropriately between client groups.
Adolescent↗
Multivariate analysis of outcome of mental health care using graphical chain models. The South-Verona Outcome Project 1.
BACKGROUND: Short-term outcome of mental health care was assessed in a multidimensional perspective using graphical chain models, a new multivariate method that analyses the relationship between variables conditionally, i.e. taking into account the effect of antecedent and intervening variables. METHODS: GAF, BPRS, DAS (at baseline and after 6 months), LQL and VSSS (at follow-up only) were administered to 194 patients attending the South-Verona community-based mental health service. Direct costs in the interval were also calculated. Graphical chain models were used to analyse: (1) the associations between predictors (psychopathology, disability, functioning, assessed at baseline); (2) the effects of predictors on costs; and (3) the effect of predictors and costs on outcomes (psychopathology, disability, functioning, quality of life and service satisfaction) as well as their correlation. RESULTS: Psychopathology, disability and functioning scores at baseline predicted the corresponding scores at 6-month follow-up, with greater improvement in the more severely ill. Higher psychopathology and poorer functioning at baseline predicted higher costs and, in turn, costs predicted poorer functioning at follow-up. Outcome indicators polarized in two groups: psychopathology, disability and functioning, which were highly correlated; and the dyad service satisfaction and quality of life. Service satisfaction was highly related to quality of life and was predicted by low disability and high dysfunctioning. No predictors for quality of life were found. CONCLUSIONS: Graphical chain models were demonstrated to be a useful methodology to analyse process and outcome data. The results of the present study help in formulating specific hypotheses for future studies on outcome.
Adult↗
Efficacy of the alcohol use disorders identification test as a screening tool for hazardous alcohol intake and related disorders in primary care: a validity study.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the properties of the alcohol use disorders identification test in screening primary care attenders for alcohol problems. DESIGN: A validity study among consecutive primary care attenders aged 18-65 years. Every third subject completed the alcohol use disorders identification test (a 10 item self report questionnaire on alcohol intake and related problems) and was interviewed by an investigator with the composite international diagnostic interview alcohol use module (a standardised interview for the independent assessment of alcohol intake and related disorders). SETTING: 10 primary care clinics in Verona, north eastern Italy. PATIENTS: 500 subjects were approached and 482 (96.4%) completed evaluation. RESULTS: When the alcohol use disorders identification test was used to detect subjects with alcohol problems the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was 0.95. The cut off score of 5 was associated with a sensitivity of 0.84, a specificity of 0.90, and a positive predictive value of 0.60. The screening ability of the total score derived from summing the responses to the five items minimising the probability of misclassification between subjects with and without alcohol problems provided an area under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.93. A score of 5 or more on the five items was associated with a sensitivity of 0.79, a specificity of 0.95, and a positive predictive value of 0.73. CONCLUSIONS: The alcohol use disorders identification test performs well in detecting subjects with formal alcohol disorders and those with hazardous alcohol intake. Using five of the 10 items on the questionnaire gives reasonable accuracy, and these are recommended as questions of choice to screen patients for alcohol problems.
Adolescent↗
Frequency of contact with community-based psychiatric services and the lunar cycle: a 10-year case-register study.
The relationship between the lunar cycle and the frequency of contact with community-based psychiatric services was assessed using the South Verona Psychiatric Case Register data. For each day of the study period (January 1982-December 1991) we recorded the number of contacts made by South Verona residents with psychiatric services and the corresponding day of the lunar cycle. First, the synodic month was divided into four interval phases (usually called new moon, first quarter, full moon and third quarter), and interphase differences in the mean number of contacts were tested using one-way analysis of variance. Second. the null hypothesis of no relationship between the lunar cycle and the frequency of contact with psychiatric services was tested against the alternative hypothesis of a sinusoidal distribution according to the lunar phase. The average number of contacts with psychiatric services on each day of the lunar cycle over the 10-year period was obtained and a sine-wave curve was fitted to the data. Both for total and drop-in contacts, no significant differences in mean number of contacts were found between the four interval phases of the synodic month (new moon, first quarter, full moon and third quarter). Similarly, no significant results were found by setting the expected surge in consultations at 1-3 days after the full moon and the period of the sine-wave curve equal to 30 days. When the period of the sine-wave curve was allowed to vary in order to fit the data best, none of the statistical tests reached the level of significance required to dismiss the possibility of false-positive results. These findings did not support the theory that a relationship exists between the lunar cycle and the frequency of contact with community-based psychiatric services.
Community Mental Health Services↗
Identification of psychiatric distress by primary care physicians.
The aims of the present study were to evaluate the extent to which primary care physicians' (PCPs) identification of psychiatric distress is related to a number of nonpsychopathological factors, such as patient sociodemographic and health-related characteristics, and to assess the impact of depression on PCP identification of psychiatric distress, controlling for patient sociodemographic and health-related characteristics. Two patient samples were chosen to explore these issues: 1) patients not fulfilling any ICD-10-defined or subthreshold psychiatric diagnosis and, 2) patients with an ICD-10 diagnosis of current depression. Patients attending 46 primary care clinics during an index period were screened by the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 and selected for a second stage interview according to GHQ score. Among the 559 interviewed patients, 123 had no mental disorder and 66 had an ICD-10 current depressive disorder. Identification of psychiatric distress by the PCP was associated with retirement among subjects without mental disorders but not among depressed patients. Patient's negative overall health self-perception and severity of physical illness were significantly related to identification of psychiatric distress in the two groups, whereas neither disability nor reason for medical consultation had a significant effect. Patients with current depression, compared with those without, were 4.3 times more likely to be identified by PCPs as having psychiatric distress when adjusting for all the above nonpsychopathological variables. Patients with depression and comorbid anxiety disorders were more likely to be recognized by the PCP as compared with those with pure depression. Finally, among depressive symptoms, diurnal variation and symptoms related to suicidal tendencies were predictive of identification of psychiatric distress, whereas increase of appetite was negatively associated with PCP recognition.
Adult↗
Continuity of care for patients with schizophrenia and related disorders: a comparative south-Verona and Groningen case-register study.
BACKGROUND: It is widely believed that for the severely mentally ill continuity of care is essential to ensure a better outcome and prevent long-term hospitalization. However, not much progress has been made in the operationalization and measurement of this concept. We used two indicators to compare continuity of care of schizophrenic patients in two kinds of mental health systems. One is a community mental health system without the back-up of a mental hospital (South-Verona, Italy). The other is an institution-based system in which mental hospitals are still predominant (Groningen, The Netherlands). METHODS: The first indicator of continuity of care, readiness of aftercare, is the time from discharge from hospital to the first day- or out-patient contact. Survival analysis was applied to correct for censored observations. The second indicator, flexibility of care, is the use of combinations of in-, day- and out-patient care during 2-year follow-up. RESULTS: More patients in South-Verona received community care within 2 weeks after discharge (71.5%), than in the Groningen register area (54.6%). The survival functions differed significantly. Cox regression analysis revealed that in both systems a contact before admission, the time between this contact and admission and the duration of the admission are predictors for aftercare. A higher percentage of patients made multiple service use (combinations of in-, day- and out-patient care) in South-Verona than in Groningen (62 v. 45%). CONCLUSIONS: Both indicators showed a higher continuity of care in the South-Verona system.
Adolescent↗
The use of a case register to evaluate the costs of psychiatric care.
The aim of this study was to show the usefulness of adding cost information to a routine data collection provided by a case register for analysing the association between patients' characteristics and the direct costs of the psychiatric care actually provided. All patients (n = 706) who in 1992 had at least one contact with services which report to the South Verona psychiatric case register and who received an ICD-10 diagnosis were included in the study. The costs of specialist psychiatric care provided during the 365 days following the first contact in 1992 were calculated using a unit cost list. A bespoke software, linked to the case register, was designed to produce the individual information on costs directly. For each patient, costs were categorized as in-patient costs, sheltered accommodation costs, day-care costs, out-patient costs and community costs. All costs, grouped by service type, were found to differ significantly (P < 0.01) between diagnostic groups (affective disorders, neurotic and somatoform disorders, schizophrenia and related disorders, and other diagnoses). The multivariate analyses showed that costs are significantly higher for patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and related disorders than for patients belonging to the other diagnostic groups. However, only 6% of the variation could be explained by diagnostic group alone. On the other hand, between 40 and 50% of the costs of mental health care was predicted by patients' personal characteristics and other measures recorded on the case register. The results of the present study show that, where service use is monitored regularly, the base from which decisions on community provision and placement are made can be informed by careful analysis of routinely or easily available data on direct costs.
Adolescent↗
Psychosocial factors and physical illness in primary care: promoting the biopsychosocial model in medical practice.
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Clinical Competence↗
Service utilization by schizophrenic patients in Groningen and South-Verona: an event-history analysis.
The question addressed to in this paper is whether severely mentally ill patients are treated differently in a community mental health service without the back-up of a mental hospital (south-Verona, Italy) compared with an institution-based system in which mental hospitals, although highly modernized, are still predominant (Groningen, The Netherlands). Using the psychiatric case-registers in both areas, the patterns of care in 2 years of follow-up of schizophrenic patients were constructed. Survival analysis was used to analyse in-, day- and out-patient episodes of care. Three-quarters of the Groningen and half of the south-Verona patients experienced at least one episode of hospitalization; 20% of the Groningen and 5% of the south-Verona patients were long-stay patients at the end of the observation period. The south-Verona patients had more episodes of in-patient and especially of day-patient and out-patient care. Cox's regression showed that the duration of episodes controlled for the history of events and sociodemographic characteristics, was significantly shorter in south-Verona. One of the main conclusion was that hospitalizations for the severely mental ill are also needed in a community-based system of care, supporting the assumption of a 'bed-rock' of mental illness. However, the south-Verona community mental health service seems to be able to reduce the duration of hospitalizations considerably.
Adolescent↗