[Electroconvulsive therapy in the Netherlands: the practice in 2015 compared to that in 2008]. / Elektroconvulsietherapie in Nederland: de praktijk in 2015 vergeleken met die in 2008.

BACKGROUND: The most recent information about the use of ECT in the Netherlands dates from 2008. An update version of the guideline for the use of ECT in the Netherlands was issued in 2010. AIM: To obtain insight into the practice of ECT in the Netherlands five years after implementation of the guideline. METHOD: Our study is based on a questionnaire about the use of ECT by psychiatrists in all Dutch institutions (n=33). Questions concerned the use and availability of ECT as well as the implementation of the updated guideline; they also served as a check on the expertise and training of ECT-psychiatrists. RESULTS: All institutions responded. The total number of ECT-sessions performed in 2015 was 15,633, a 16% increase compared to 2008. In 2015 more institutions were using 7x24 ECT and more had an ECT-nurse available. Nearly all psychiatrists were acquainted at the time with the revised guideline of 2010 and nearly 50% of them had adjusted the way they practised ECT. However, just under 40% of psychiatrists did not have the correct knowledge about some technical details regarding ECT. CONCLUSION: The revised guideline on ECT and its implementation have most likely improved the practice of ECT in the Netherlands.

A functional MRI marker may predict the outcome of electroconvulsive therapy in severe and treatment-resistant depression.

Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is effective even in treatment-resistant patients with major depression. Currently, there are no markers available that can assist in identifying those patients most likely to benefit from ECT. In the present study, we investigated whether resting-state network connectivity can predict treatment outcome for individual patients. We included forty-five patients with severe and treatment-resistant unipolar depression and collected functional magnetic resonance imaging scans before the course of ECT. We extracted resting-state networks and used multivariate pattern analysis to discover networks that predicted recovery from depression. Cross-validation revealed two resting-state networks with significant classification accuracy after correction for multiple comparisons. A network centered in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, orbitofrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex) showed a sensitivity of 84% and specificity of 85%. Another network centered in the anterior cingulate cortex (including the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, sensorimotor cortex, parahippocampal gyrus and midbrain) showed a sensitivity of 80% and a specificity of 75%. These preliminary results demonstrate that resting-state networks may predict treatment outcome for individual patients and suggest that resting-state networks have the potential to serve as prognostic neuroimaging biomarkers to guide personalized treatment decisions.

[The tasks and aims of hospital psychiatry today and in the future]. / Het rendement van de ziekenhuis­psychiatrie: heden en toekomst.

BACKGROUND: Care provided by consultation-liaison (CL) psychiatry and general hospital (GH) psychiatry varies widely. This means that certain services are almost unrecognisable and therefore less readily available to patients.
AIM: To describe the core tasks of current CL- and GH-psychiatry care and to suggest how these tasks can best be performed and developed in the future.
METHOD: We conducted a selective review of relevant CL- and GH-related literature and combined the information we obtained with the results of a consultation with CL-psychiatrists about how CL- and GL psychiatry should function in the future.
RESULTS: Core tasks of CL- and GH-psychiatry are: 1. inpatient and outpatient care for complex patients with combined somatic and psychiatric problems (including addiction) and 2. acute care, diagnosis and treatment of patients referred to the Emergency Department. We gave an outline of how the quality of training can be maintained and/or improved and we suggest ways in which the funding of CL- and GH-psychiatry can be safeguarded and, if possible, increased in the future.
CONCLUSION: We strongly recommend that large teaching hospitals and all university hospitals should have at their disposal a psychiatric consultation service that includes psychiatric Emergency Department facilities and specialised CL and GH inpatient and outpatient facility such as a medical-psychiatric unit. The CL- and GH-service should have a psychiatrist as gatekeeper and should be integrated into the hospital's chain of care. Partners in this chain of care are interns who have other medical specialisms, mental health specialists employed at other (mainly psychiatric) hospitals and general practitioners (GPs).

[Music as an uninvited guest: the auditive variant of the Charles Bonnet syndrome]. / Muziek als ongenode gast: de auditieve variant van syndroom van Charles Bonnet.

Visually handicapped patients can be tormented by complex visual hallucinations (Charles Bonnet syndrome). Likewise, deaf patients and patients with impaired hearing can be plagued by auditory hallucinations, mostly involving music. Our article focuses on three female patients who suffered from musical hallucinations. In one of these patients the hallucinations ceased when her hearing was restored. In the second patient the hallucinations ceased when carbamazepine was prescribed. Quetiapine reduced the musical hallucinations in the third patient. The differential diagnoses and therapeutic options are discussed.

Factors influencing the admission decision for Medical Psychiatry Units: A concept mapping approach.

OBJECTIVE: Medical Psychiatry Units (MPUs), also known as Complexity Intervention Units (CIUs), provide care for complex patients suffering from both psychiatric and physical disorders. Because there is no consensus on the indications for admission to an MPU, daily practice and effectiveness research are hampered. This study therefore used a concept mapping approach to investigate which organizational and medical factors determine the decision to admit a patient to an MPU. METHODS: The first step of the concept mapping approach was to create a list of factors determining MPU admission from literature. Secondly, clinical experts sorted and ranked these factors. The sorted and ranked data were then analyzed, and a draft conceptual framework was created. A final conceptual MPU admission framework was then drawn during an expert consensus meeting and recommendations for implementation were suggested. RESULTS: Thirteen clinical experts defined 90 factors from literature, which were sorted and ranked by 40 experts from 21 Dutch hospitals. This concept mapping approach resulted in a five-cluster solution for an MPU admission framework based on: 1. Staff competencies and organizational pre-requisites; 2. Patient context; 3. Patient characteristics; 4. Medical needs and capabilities; and 5. Psychiatric symptoms and behavioral problems. Furthermore, three inclusion and two exclusion criteria were formulated to help the clinicians decide whether or not to admit patients to an MPU. These criteria can be implemented in daily practice. CONCLUSION: Implementing the five criteria derived from this conceptual framework will help make the admission decision for complex patients with psychiatric and physical disorders to an MPU more correct, consistent, and transparent.

[Palliative care in a psychiatric-somatic care unit]. / Palliatieve zorg op een psychiatrisch-medische unit.

Patients with severe psychiatric and somatic disorders may require admission to a combined psychiatric-somatic care unit. These units provide specialised psychiatric and somatic care as well as palliative care. This is illustrated by two case reports. A 51-year-old man with a malignant brain tumour was admitted to our psychiatric-somatic care unit after threatening his wife and children. He was aggressive and confused. Seizures were suspected and palliative care was needed. Within a few weeks his condition deteriorated. He died 1 day after terminal sedation had been initiated. A 78-year-old woman was admitted to receive daily electroconvulsive treatment (ECT) for depression with catatonia. The ECT had to be interrupted repeatedly due to comorbid infections and complications. She died 3 days after palliative care was initiated.

[Consultation-liaison psychiatry and general hospital psychiatry in the Netherlands: on the way to psychosomatic medicine]. / Consultatieve en ziekenhuispsychiatrie in Nederland: op weg naar psychosomatische geneeskunde.

Consultation-liaison psychiatry and general hospital psychiatry have played a major role in promoting the concept of integrated care. New models for care have been developed and policy assurances about the quality of care have been expressed in the form of guidelines and indicators relating to procedure and performance. General hospital psychiatry is playing an increasingly important role in the training of psychiatrists. Due to the ageing population there is greater awareness of the importance of comorbidity and more support for the concept of integrated care. These changes will promote the further development of general hospital psychiatry.

[Guidelines in Dutch mental health institutions for dealing with persons attempting suicide]. / Richtlijnen voor de opvang van suïcidepogers in Nederlandse ggz-instellingen.

BACKGROUND: Attempted suicide is a frequent occurrence, even in mental health institutions (mhis). The World Health Organization strongly supports the development and implementation of guidelines for dealing with cases of attempted suicide in mhis. aim To check on the existence, content and quality of guidelines for dealing with persons attempting suicide within mhis in the Netherlands and to compare these guidelines with those available in university and general hospitals. METHOD: A questionnaire was sent to all mhis. Criteria for assessing the content of existing guidelines were derived from the literature. The quality of the guidelines was then assessed on the basis of the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation (agree), a tool developed to evaluate guideline quality. results Thirty-eight out of 48 (72.2%) psychiatric institutions responded, giving us access to 12 sets of guidelines. The content and quality of these guidelines were compared with the content and quality of the guidelines available in university and general hospitals; there were several differences, but on the whole the mhi-guidelines were better. CONCLUSION: Guidelines were only available in a limited number of mhis. Most of the guidelines were adequate with regard to content, but some of the mhi-guidelines lacked some important elements. The quality of the mhi-guidelines was rather low but nevertheless better that that of the hospital guidelines.

Memory impairment in those who attempted suicide by benzodiazepine overdose.

BACKGROUND: A prospective study was conducted to investigate the presence of anterograde amnesia in those who attempted suicide by benzodiazepine overdose and to study the correlation with sedation. METHOD: In 43 patients who attempted suicide by taking benzodiazepines, memory was tested with a 15-word memory recall task. The immediate and delayed recall on the first day after admission (day 1) and 24 hours later (day 2) were rated. Each patient and the interviewer scored the patient's degree of sedation on a visual analogue scale. Patients also had to try to recognize, from photographs, the psychiatrist with whom they had spoken the day before. RESULTS: The ratings of immediate and delayed recall were significantly lower on day 1 than on day 2. Subjective ratings of sedation of the patients were not significantly higher than the ratings of the observer. Less than half of the patients recognized the psychiatrists and knew that they were the ones they had spoken to the day before. CONCLUSION: Anterograde amnesia is present in suicide attempters who take overdoses of benzodiazepines. The implications of this finding for the assessment of suicide attempters during admission are discussed.

[Electroconvulsive therapy in late life depression: a review]. / Elektroconvulsietherapie in de behandeling van depressie bij ouderen.

Electroconvulsive therapy is an important treatment of depressive states in late life. However in the Netherlands ECT is not often practiced and mostly indicated after a long period of fruitless clinical therapy. The primary aims of this literature study were to review the efficacy of ECT in late life depression, to identify predictors of good response, to discuss contraindications, side effects and finally modifications of technique. Eighteen studies were found addressing the topic of efficacy. Outcome ranged between 50%-100% clinically significant improvement. Positive predictors are melancholic features and delusional depression. Unlike in younger patients hypochondriacal symptoms and anxiety do not predict a negative outcome in older patients. ECT has been used successfully in depression complicated by dementia, cognitive decline and cerebrovascular disease. Depression in Parkinson's disease may be a special indication where ECT may have a positive effect on motor symptoms. There are no firm indications of long term cognitive decline associated with ECT. Guidelines for practicing ECT (unipolar, brief pulse and anaesthesia) are in line with the state of the art in the literature. It is concluded that, especially in severe depression associated with comorbidity, current Dutch practice in using ECT, often leads to unwarranted delay.

[Electroconvulsive therapy in a peripheral hospital]. / Elektroconvulsietherapie in een perifeer ziekenhuis.

The findings are reported of a retrospective study of 25 patients with a refractory depression in the restricted sense, admitted for ECT to a psychiatric department of a general hospital (Rijnstate, Arnhem). The results after ECT and the course during 2 years after the treatment were inventoried and compared with data in the literature. At discharge, 12 patients were classified as 'recovered', 9 were improved and four showed little or no change. After two years, 4 patients had died, one of them having committed suicide. Of the 22 follow-up patients 19 patients were at home: 15 could be classified as cured, 3 considered their condition improved and 4 were unchanged. Twelve were found to have had a recurrence of depression which in ten of them could be controlled with antidepressive drugs or ECT. ECT as a part of treatment of depressions may be regarded as useful and may safely be administered in a psychiatric department of a general hospital.

[The medical-psychiatric unit: added value for patients, physicians and hospitals]. / De medisch-psychiatrische unit: meerwaarde voor patiënten, artsen en ziekenhuizen.

Physical and mental illnesses commonly occur together. The quality of physical care in institutions for mental health in the Netherlands is not guaranteed. The cases of a 63-year-old woman with a schizoaffective disorder and diabetes mellitus who became delirious after surgery and a 76-year-old suicidal man with a psychotic disorder due to hydrocobalamine deficiency after major heart surgery show that the so-called medical-psychiatric unit, which is a part of the Psychiatric Department of a general hospital, may have several advantages in the treatment of combined physical and mental disorders. Both patients were admitted to such a unit. In this way, the internist of the first patient could continue to treat her and she could be treated with an infusion, urinary catheter and gastric intubation; in addition, laboratory investigations could be performed. The second patient, whose safety required primary attention, could also be treated for his somatic disorders and a delirium could be ruled out. His family was assisted in recovering from their traumatic life experience caused by his suicide attempt.

[Repeated suicide attempts: a need for continued care]. / Recidiverende suïcidepogers: hulp blijven aanbieden.

Prevention of deliberate self-harm, especially suicide attempts, remains difficult and this puts a great burden on the family as well as on the health-care professionals. The risk of a subsequent suicide attempt or a successful suicide is high while the behaviour is often met with antipathy, a feeling of helplessness and anger. This is in conflict with the needs of the patient; every suicide attempt requires the health-care professionals involved to exhibit a emphatic, patient and serious attitude, even when patients refuse to cooperate, are restless, aggressive or unwilling to communicate. Prevention of the suicidal behaviour can only be achieved this way.

[Successful electroconvulsive therapy in a pregnant woman with neuroleptic malignant syndrome]. / Succesvolle elektroconvulsietherapie bij een zwangere vrouw met het maligne neuroleptica-syndroom.

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome was diagnosed in a 27-year-old pregnant female with a psychiatric disorder, after treatment with haloperidol. The syndrome did not respond to treatment with dantrolene. Serious vegetative instability weighed against the use of electroconvulsive treatment. After 29 3/7 weeks of amenorrhoea electroconvulsive treatment was started, and the clinical picture gradually improved. Mother and child were discharged in good clinical condition.

[Guidelines and their observance in the psychiatric care of failed suicides in general hospitals]. / Richtlijnen en naleving daarvan bij de psychiatrische opvang van suïcidepogers in algemene ziekenhuizen.

OBJECTIVE: To gain insight into the guidelines established for the care of failed suicides in general hospitals, and into the degree to which these guidelines are observed in practice. DESIGN: Descriptive, retrospective. SETTING: Department of Psychiatry, Rijnstate Hospital, Arnhem, the Netherlands. METHOD: An inventory of guidelines for the care of failed suicides was made by interviewing seven psychiatrists on the staff of general hospitals. The inventory was limited to access (interval between admission and referral/consultation), and the coordination of the care (i.e. adjustment to the patient's condition, transfer of information). Subsequently, the cases of all failed suicides admitted to these hospitals in 1991 were studied to find out how these guidelines were observed in practice; use was made for this purpose of data from a more extensive European study. RESULTS: All seven hospitals proved to have rules for coping with tailed suicides. Guidelines concerning accessibility of care were fairly similar in the various hospitals; regarding the coordination of care, more local variants were found to exist. The accessibility of care was found to be mostly in accordance with the guidelines. There were more deviations from the guidelines where the coordination of care was concerned; in addition, there were substantial differences between the hospitals in the degrees to which deviation from the guidelines occurred. CONCLUSION: Guidelines for the care of failed suicides admitted to general hospitals were not in all respects similar; the observance differed markedly, especially regarding the coordination of care.