The characteristics of discharge prescriptions including pro re nata psychotropic medications for patients with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder from the survey of the "Effectiveness of guidelines for dissemination and education in psychiatric treatment (EGUIDE)" project.

BACKGROUND: Several guidelines recommend monotherapy in pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. The content of regular prescriptions has been reported in several studies, but not enough research has been conducted on the content of pharmacotherapy, including pro re nata (PRN) medications. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the content of pharmacotherapy, including PRN medications, and to clarify the relationship with regular prescriptions. METHODS: We used data from the "Effectiveness of Guidelines for Dissemination And Education in psychiatric treatment" (EGUIDE) project to investigate the presence or absence of PRN psychotropic medications at discharge for each drug category. We compared the PRN psychotropic prescription ratio at discharge by diagnosis for each drug category. The antipsychotic monotherapy ratio and no prescription ratio of other psychotropics for schizophrenia at discharge and the antidepressant monotherapy ratio and no prescription ratio of other psychotropics for major depressive disorder at discharge were calculated for each regular prescription, including PRN psychotropic medications, as quality indicators (QIs). Spearman's rank correlation test was performed for QI values of regular prescriptions and the QI ratio between regular prescriptions and prescriptions including PRN medications for each diagnosis. RESULTS: The PRN psychotropic prescription ratio at discharge was 28.7% for schizophrenia and 30.4% for major depressive disorder, with no significant differences by diagnosis. The prescription ratios of PRN antipsychotic medications and PRN antiparkinsonian medications were significantly higher for schizophrenia. The prescription ratios of PRN anxiolytic and hypnotic and PRN antidepressant medications were significantly higher for patients with major depressive disorder. For both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, the QI was lower for discharge prescriptions, including PRN medications, than for regular prescriptions. QI values for regular prescriptions and the QI ratio were positively correlated. CONCLUSIONS: Considering PRN psychotropic medications, the monotherapy ratio and no prescription ratio of other psychotropics at discharge decreased in pharmacotherapy for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. A higher ratio of monotherapy and no prescription of other psychotropics on regular prescriptions may result in less concomitant use of PRN psychotropic medications. Further studies are needed to optimize PRN psychotropic prescriptions.

Implementation of a shared decision-making training program for clinicians based on the major depressive disorder guidelines in Japan: A multi-center cluster randomized trial.

Background: Although shared treatment decision-making with patients requires attention, it is not widely implemented, particularly in the field of psychiatry. The aim of this study was to assess whether a shared decision-making (SDM) training program for clinicians based on the major depressive disorder (MDD) guidelines improved the perceived involvement of the decision process for patients with MDD. Methods: A multi-center cluster-randomized controlled intervention of a clinician training program based on the Japanese MDD guidelines using related decision aids compared to usual care was conducted among 56 clinicians from 23 institutions. A total of 124 patients with MDD were enrolled in this study. The primary outcomes were the scores of the Shared Decision Making-Questionnaire-9 (SDM-Q-9) and Decision Conflict Scale (DCS) after the first visit to the outpatient clinics. The secondary outcomes were patients' satisfaction, quality of life, trust in clinicians, and depressive symptoms. Additionally, we evaluated all the observed outcomes at the first and third months of follow-up. Results: The scores of the SDM-Q-9 in the SDM training program group were significantly higher than those in the control group at the first visit. However, no significant difference in the DCS scores was found between the two groups. There was no intervention effect for secondary outcomes and the outcomes at the first- and third-month follow-up visits. Conclusion: The clinician training program based on the Japanese MDD guidelines can be useful for implementation of SDM. Additional research is needed to confirm the efficacy of this SDM training program. Clinical trial registration: [https://www.umin.ac.jp/], identifier [UMIN000034397].

The characteristics of patients receiving psychotropic pro re nata medication at discharge for the treatment of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder: A nationwide survey from the EGUIDE project.

BACKGROUND: Although several guidelines indicate that daily pharmacotherapy is an important part of the treatment of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder, there are few reports regarding pro re nata (PRN) prescriptions. The purpose of this study is to clarify the characteristics of patients receiving psychotropic PRN prescription for the treatment of schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. METHOD: We used data from 'the effectiveness of guideline for dissemination and education in psychiatric treatment' (EGUIDE) project to evaluate the presence or absence of psychotropic PRN prescription at the time of discharge, the age and sex of patients receiving PRN prescription for each diagnosis, and the association between PRN prescription and regular daily psychotropics. RESULTS: The psychotropic PRN prescription ratio was 29.9% among 2617 patients with schizophrenia and 31.1% among 1248 patients with major depressive disorder at discharge. In schizophrenia, the psychotropic PRN prescription ratio was 21.6% for patients aged 65 years or older, which was lower than that of all other age groups. In major depressive disorder, the psychotropic PRN prescription ratio was 34.2% for female patients, which was significantly higher than that for male patients (25.5%). In schizophrenia, there was an association between psychotropic PRN prescription and regular use of multiple psychotropic medications. CONCLUSIONS: Psychotropic PRN prescription was less common in elderly patients with schizophrenia and more common in female patients with major depressive disorder. In schizophrenia, psychotropic PRN prescription led to polypharmacy of psychotropics. Further studies are needed to accumulate evidence and to provide education on appropriate PRN prescriptions.

Factors Associated With Time to Achieve Employment Through Occupational Support Programs in Patients With Mood Disorders: 1 Year Naturalistic Study.

Objective: Mood disorders cause significant work performance disability in sufferers and often lead to adverse employment outcomes in working individuals. The aim of this study was to explore factors associated with time to achieve employment through the occupational support program (OSP) for patients with mood disorders. Methods: The participants were patients admitted to the Kyorin university hospital from April 2016 to April 2019. Patients who met the criteria for major depressive disorder and depressive episode of bipolar I or II disorder according to DSM-5 and participated in the occupational therapy-based OSP for at least three sessions (one course) were included in this study. We collected demographic and clinical variables at the baseline of this study through medical records and OSP records; the variables included age, gender, diagnosis, scores of Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology and Global Assessment of Functioning, the number of times of participation in the OSP, word count of the transcription task in the OSP, typographical deficiency, fatigue status and mood status after the OSP. The primary outcome was set as the time to achieve the employment within 1 year after the discharge. Results: Of the 211 patients who participated in the OSP during the survey period, 49 participants met the criteria in this study. The results showed that 14 patients achieved and the other 35 patients did not achieve the employment within 1 year of discharge from the hospital. A multivariate cox regression analysis revealed that the word count of the transcription task in the OSP (HR = 1.03, 95% CI = 1.01-1.05, p = 0.016) and mood status after the OSP (HR = 2.77, 95% CI = 1.18-6.51, p = 0.019) were significantly associated with time to achieve the employment. Conclusion: In conclusion, this study suggested that work speed and mood response in the OSP could be significant predictors for achieving employment in patients with mood disorders.

Improving Employment Through Interpersonal Psychotherapy: A Case Series of Patients With Treatment-Refractory Depression.

Patients with treatment-refractory depression (TRD) have significantly great losses in work productivity and employment. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is considered an approach for the treatment of TRD. However, the effectiveness of IPT in patients with TRD remains unclear. In this study, we report cases of TRD patients who underwent IPT after a detailed evaluation, along with their employment status. Of 112 patients who experienced 1-week examination administration for TRD at Kyorin University Hospital, which aimed to determine appropriate diagnosis and treatment approaches for each patient, four patients who met the criteria for major depressive disorder according to DSM-IV-TR and were determined suitable for IPT were included in this report. Two patients had moderate, one had mild, and one had remission levels of depressive symptoms according to the Montgomery-Asberg Depression Rating Scale at the time of admission. All four patients completed the scheduled sessions of IPT (6-16 sessions) in the outpatient clinic and achieved remission. All four patients attained full-time employment within 6 months after receiving IPT. This study suggests that the appropriate selection of IPT might be effective for TRD patients, possibly leading to positive outcomes, including work productivity and employment status.