Identification of psychiatric patients with high mortality and low medical utilization: a population-based propensity score-matched analysis.

BACKGROUND: The decreased life expectancy and care costs of mental disorders could be enormous. However, research that compares mortality and utilization concurrently across the major category of mental disorders is absent. This study investigated all-cause mortality and medical utilization among patients with and without mental disorders, with an emphasis on identifying the psychiatric category of high mortality and low medical utilization. METHODS: A total of 570,250 individuals identified from the 2002-2013 Taiwan National Health Insurance Reearch Database consistuted 285,125 psychiatric patients and 285,125 non-psychiatric peers through 1:1 dual propensity score matching (PSM). The expenditure survival ratio (ESR) was proposed to indicate potential utilization shortage. The category of mental disorders and 13 covariates were analyzed using the Cox proportional hazard model and general linear model (GLM) through SAS 9.4. RESULTS: PSM analyses indicated that mortality and total medical expenditures per capita were both significantly higher in psychiatric patients than those in non-psychiatric patients (all P <.0.0001). Patients with substance use disorders were reported having the youngest ages at diagnosis and at death, with the highest 25.64 of potential years of life loss (YPLL) and relevant 2904.89 of ESR. Adjusted Cox model and GLM results indicated that, compared with anxiety disorders, affective disorders and substance use disorders were significantly associated with higher mortality (HR = 1.246 and 1.064, respectively; all P < 0.05); schizophrenia was significantly associated with higher total medical expenditures per capita (P < 0.0001). Thirteen additional factors were significantly associated with mortality or utilization (all P < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Substance use disorders are the category of highest YPLL but notably in insufficient utilization. Health care utilization in patients with substance use disorders should be augmented timely after the diagnosis, especially toward home and community care. The factors related to mortality and utilization identified by this study merit clinical attention.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of an integrated care program for schizophrenia: an analysis of routine data.

In Germany, a regional social health insurance fund provides an integrated care program for patients with schizophrenia (IVS). Based on routine data of the social health insurance, this evaluation examined the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the IVS compared to the standard care (control group, CG). The primary outcome was the reduction of psychiatric inpatient treatment (days in hospital), and secondary outcomes were schizophrenia-related inpatient treatment, readmission rates, and costs. To reduce selection bias, a propensity score matching was performed. The matched sample included 752 patients. Mean number of psychiatric and schizophrenia-related hospital days of patients receiving IVS (2.3 ± 6.5, 1.7 ± 5.0) per quarter was reduced, but did not differ statistically significantly from CG (2.7 ± 7.6, 1.9 ± 6.2; p = 0.772, p = 0.352). Statistically significant between-group differences were found in costs per quarter per person caused by outpatient treatment by office-based psychiatrists (IVS: €74.18 ± 42.30, CG: €53.20 ± 47.96; p < 0.001), by psychiatric institutional outpatient departments (IVS: €4.83 ± 29.57, CG: €27.35 ± 76.48; p < 0.001), by medication (IVS: €471.75 ± 493.09, CG: €429.45 ± 532.73; p = 0.015), and by psychiatric outpatient nursing (IVS: €3.52 ± 23.83, CG: €12.67 ± 57.86, p = 0.045). Mean total psychiatric costs per quarter per person in IVS (€1117.49 ± 1662.73) were not significantly lower than in CG (€1180.09 ± 1948.24; p = 0.150). No statistically significant differences in total schizophrenia-related costs per quarter per person were detected between IVS (€979.46 ± 1358.79) and CG (€989.45 ± 1611.47; p = 0.084). The cost-effectiveness analysis showed cost savings of €148.59 per reduced psychiatric and €305.40 per reduced schizophrenia-related hospital day. However, limitations, especially non-inclusion of costs related to management of the IVS and additional home treatment within the IVS, restrict the interpretation of the results. Therefore, the long-term impact of this IVS deserves further evaluation.

[Comparison of medical and economic benefits of antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia in France]. / Comparaison des bénéfices médico-économiques des antipsychotiques dans la prise en charge de la schizophrénie en France.

INTRODUCTION: The course of schizophrenia can vary widely, and patients experience remission phases alternating with relapse episodes, which generally lead to hospitalisation and have a significant impact on the burden of disease. The prevalence of schizophrenia in France is estimated to be approximately 600,000 people, with an incidence of 10,000 new patients per year. Patients with schizophrenia represent the largest group of hospitalised patients in French public institutions and specialised centres, and the French authorities recognise that the management of schizophrenia is a major public health concern. The Haute Autorité de Santé (HAS) and most of the evidence-based guidelines for the maintenance treatment of schizophrenia recommend long-acting injectable (LAI) antipsychotics to be used predominantly in the prevention of relapse for non-compliant patients; however, in clinical practice, the use of LAIs remains low. OBJECTIVE: This analysis aimed to estimate and to compare the cost-effectiveness of the most common antipsychotic strategies in France in the management of schizophrenia. METHODS: A Markov model was developed to simulate the progression of a cohort of patients with schizophrenia through four health states (stable treated, stable non-treated, relapse and death) and considered up to three lines of treatment to account for changes in treatment management. Antipsychotics including aripiprazole LAI (ALAI), olanzapine LAI (OLAI), paliperidone LAI (PLAI), risperidone LAI (RLAI), haloperidol decanoate (HD) and oral olanzapine (OO) were compared in terms of costs and clinical outcomes. Thus, costs, quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) and number of relapses were assessed over five years based on three-month cycles from a French health insurance perspective with a discount rate of 4 %. Patients were considered to be stabilised after clinical decompensation and would enter the model at an initiation phase, followed by a prevention of relapse phase if successful. Data (e.g. relapse or discontinuation rates) for the initiation phase came from randomised clinical trials, whereas relapse rates in the prevention phase were derived from hospitalisation risks based on French real-life data in order to capture adherence effects. Safety and utility data were derived from international publications. Additionally costs were retrieved from French health insurance databases and publications. Robustness of results was assessed through deterministic and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. RESULTS: First and second generations of LAIs were found to have similar costs over five years; i.e. approximately € 55,000, except for PLAI which was associated with a discounted cost of € 50,880. Oral antipsychotics were found to be less costly (i.e. OO cost € 50,379 after five years) but associated with a lower number of QALYs gained and relapse avoided. PLAI and RLAI were associated with the greatest number of QALYs gained; i.e. PLAI dominated ALAI, OLAI and HD and was associated with an incremental costs-effectiveness ratio (ICER) of € 2411 per QALY gained versus OO. Finally, PLAI and OLAI were associated with the lowest number of relapses; i.e. PLAI dominated RLAI, ALAI and HLAI and was associated with an ICER of € 1782 per avoided relapse compared to OO. OO and HD were found to have led to the highest number of relapses. CONCLUSION: This analysis, to the best of our knowledge, is the first of its kind to assess the cost-effectiveness of antipsychotics based on French observational data. PLAI was associated with the highest probability of being the optimal treatment from the French health insurance perspective.

Cost-Effectiveness of Comprehensive, Integrated Care for First Episode Psychosis in the NIMH RAISE Early Treatment Program.

This study compares the cost-effectiveness of Navigate (NAV), a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, team-based treatment approach for first episode psychosis (FEP) and usual Community Care (CC) in a cluster randomization trial. Patients at 34 community treatment clinics were randomly assigned to either NAV (N = 223) or CC (N = 181) for 2 years. Effectiveness was measured as a one standard deviation change on the Quality of Life Scale (QLS-SD). Incremental cost effectiveness ratios were evaluated with bootstrap distributions. The Net Health Benefits Approach was used to evaluate the probability that the value of NAV benefits exceeded its costs relative to CC from the perspective of the health care system. The NAV group improved significantly more on the QLS and had higher outpatient mental health and antipsychotic medication costs. The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio was $12 081/QLS-SD, with a .94 probability that NAV was more cost-effective than CC at $40 000/QLS-SD. When converted to monetized Quality Adjusted Life Years, NAV benefits exceeded costs, especially at future generic drug prices.

The Cost of Inpatient Care of Schizophrenia and Treatment Schedules Used in German Academic Center: Kiel.

The authors aimed at analyzing the costs of inpatient care of schizophrenia in Kiel (Germany). The study was also to present treatment regimens used at the German Academic Center. Moreover, the study is a continuation and complement of the previous study conducted in Polish and Ukrainian Academic Center. Therefore, it helps increase the awareness and knowledge of residents concerning the cost of inpatient care of schizophrenia. The analysis was based on 105 hospital records of patients treated between January 2012 and June 2013. According to inclusion criteria, 50 adult patients (27 women and 23 men) were included in the study. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of the Medicine Faculty of CAU in Kiel. The cost of schizophrenia treatment of 50 patients in Kiel was EUR 604,280.90 ([Formula: see text] = EUR 12,085.62). The duration of hospital stay was on average [Formula: see text] = 51.02 days. The patients were treated with neuroleptics of all generations. The most popular atypical neuroleptic was amisulpride and the most popular typical neuroleptic was haloperidol. Patients from Kiel were provided a comprehensive non-pharmacological treatment. Treatment regiments and evaluations of costs of schizophrenia vary between countries. The costs of inpatient care of schizophrenia are high in Kiel. Treatment of schizophrenia seems to be comprehensive in Kiel and wide range of treatment opportunities contribute to a more effective treatment confirmed by less frequent relapses of schizophrenia than in Lviv (Ukraine), for example. Comprehensive treatment should be available everywhere, because it is a right of every patient.

[High utilisers with affective and schizophrenic disorders in the psychiatric health care system: a comparison between Eastern and Western Germany]. / High Utiliser in der psychiatrischen Versorgung: ein Ost-West-Vergleich bei affektiven und schizophrenen Störungen.

OBJECTIVE: High utilisers of psychiatric services are defined as a group of patients showing a great amount of service use, especially inpatient care, consequently causing immense costs. There is a lack of studies investigating differences between East and West Germany. METHODS: Service use and psychopathology were examined in 350 high utilisers receiving inpatient treatment in one East German and three West German psychiatric hospitals. RESULTS: Whereas current length of stay was higher in participants from West Germany, readmissions were more frequent in the East German participants who also exhibited higher psychopathology. CONCLUSION: Presumably, the deficient situation of outpatient health care in East Germany is compensated by increased stationary admission, consequently leading to a structural promotion of high utilisation.

Underprescribing of clozapine and unexplained variation in use across hospitals and regions in the Canadian province of Québec.

BACKGROUND: Clozapine remains the antipsychotic of choice for people who, having met the criteria for a diagnosis of schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder, do not respond adequately to other antipsychotic medications. Utilization rates appear highly variable across jurisdictions, with an overall tendency toward underuse. This paper describes patterns of clozapine use in the province of Québec, Canada. METHODS: Individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia were identified using linked government medical claims and hospitalization records for 2003 and 2004. Linked data on their filled prescriptions in 2004 were then used to determine clozapine-use rates at the level of the province, the region, and the hospital at which individuals received most of their services. Individual predictors of clozapine use were identified using logistic regression. RESULTS: Only 6.7% of the 29,155 individuals identified with schizophrenia received clozapine for six months or longer in 2004. Utilization rates ranged from 3.9 to 9.0% among regions with 1,000 or more people with schizophrenia. Over 8% of 61 hospitals did not prescribe clozapine at all. People with schizophrenia taking clozapine experienced 3.4 fewer days of hospitalization per year than those not taking clozapine-representing a cost offset of about $1,800 per year. Medication costs were higher, however, by about $3,000 per year. CONCLUSIONS: Given the increasingly clear benefits of clozapine for people who do not respond to other antipsychotics, measures to increase access to clozapine for people who can benefit from it are likely to be cost effective and are urgently needed.

[Satisfaction with an integrated care program for outpatients with schizophrenia or depression]. / Patientenzufriedenheit mit einem Programm der Integrierten Versorgung für die Indikationen Schizophrenie und Depression.

OBJECTIVE: To study out-patients' perception of an Integrated Care compliance program. METHODS: Survey of patients enrolled in the Integrated Care program "Münchner Modell" in Munich, Germany. RESULTS: N = 121 patients participated in the survey. Overall patients were very satisfied with the Integrated Care program. They reported improvements in several areas of life. CONCLUSION: The study highlights the aspects of routine patient care that still need to be improved and shows how these deficits can be addressed by Integrated Care programs.

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of body psychotherapy in the treatment of negative symptoms of schizophrenia--a multi-centre randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Negative symptoms of schizophrenia are frequently associated with poor long term outcomes. Established interventions have little, if any, positive effects on negative symptoms. Arts Therapies such as Body Psychotherapy (BPT) have been suggested to reduce negative symptoms, but the existing evidence is limited. In a small exploratory trial a manualised form of group BPT led to significantly lower negative symptom levels both at the end of treatment and at 4 months follow-up as compared to supportive counseling. We designed a large multi-site trial to assess the effectiveness of a manualised BPT intervention in reducing negative symptoms, compared to an active control. METHODS/DESIGN: In a randomised controlled trial, 256 schizophrenic outpatients with negative symptoms will be randomly allocated either to BPT or Pilates groups. In both conditions, patients will be offered two 90 minutes sessions per week in groups of about 8 patients over a period of 10 weeks. Outcomes are assessed at the end of treatment and at six months follow-up. The primary outcome is severity of negative symptoms, as measured by the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS), whilst a range of secondary outcome measures include general psychopathology, social contacts, and quality of life. We will also assess the cost-effectiveness of the intervention. DISCUSSION: The study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a promising form of group therapy which may help alleviate negative symptoms that are associated with unfavourable long-term outcomes and have so far been difficult to treat. If the trial is successful, it will add a new and effective option in the treatment of negative symptoms. Group BPT is manualised, might be attractive to many patients because of its unusual approach, and could potentially be rolled out to services at relatively little additional cost. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN84216587.

Performance of compliance and persistence measures in predicting clinical and economic outcomes using administrative data from German sickness funds.

STUDY OBJECTIVE: To compare the performance of various compliance and persistence measures in predicting schizophrenia-related hospitalization rates and inpatient costs. DESIGN: Retrospective, nonrandomized cohort study. DATA SOURCE: Prescription claims databases from three German sickness funds (public health insurance programs). PATIENTS: A total of 1484 patients who were hospitalized in 2003 for a schizophrenia-related episode and subsequently received long-term antipsychotic pharmacotherapy. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Data on age, sex, schizophrenia, prescription drugs, hospitalizations, and inpatient expenditures were collected for each patient from the three German sickness funds. Refill compliance measures based on single-interval availability and multiple-interval availability, as well as refill persistence, were calculated for each patient over 1 year. Ten measurement variables were compared with respect to their performance in predicting disease-related hospitalization and inpatient expenditure, using multivariate logistic regression and gamma regression, respectively. C-statistics were calculated to determine each measure's predictive performance. Likelihood ratio tests showed that inclusion of compliance and persistence measures significantly improved (p<0.05) outcomes prediction in 6 of 10 hospitalization models and in 3 of 10 inpatient cost models compared with a baseline model that included only age, sex, and disease severity covariates. Refill compliance as a continuous variable of drug persistence, including transfer of oversupplies into subsequent periods, performed best in predicting hospitalization (C = 0.669). Availability ratios, capped at 100%, were superior to default availability ratios in predicting hospitalization. Allowing for cross-period carryover improved the discriminatory performance of the persistence models. CONCLUSION: Refill persistence measures appear sufficiently flexible to account for hospitalizations common in schizophrenia and other psychiatric diseases. A continuous refill persistence measure should be used to assess compliance in psychiatric conditions when working with administrative data.

Health-related quality of life advantage of long-acting injectable antipsychotic treatment for schizophrenia: a time trade-off study.

BACKGROUND: This study was undertaken to estimate utility values for alternative treatment intervals for long acting antipsychotic intramuscular injections for the treatment of schizophrenia. METHODS: Vignettes were developed using the published literature and an iterative consultation process with expert clinicians and patient representative groups. Four vignettes were developed. The first was a vignette of relapsed/untreated schizophrenia. The other three vignettes presented a standardised picture of well-managed schizophrenia with variations in the intervals between injections: once every 2-weeks, 4-weeks and 3-months. A standardised time trade off (TTO) approach was used to obtain utility values for the vignettes. As a societal perspective was sought, a representative sample of individuals from across the community (Sydney, Australia) was recruited. Ninety-eight people completed the TTO interview. The vignettes were presented in random order to prevent possible ordering effects. RESULTS: A clear pattern of increasing utility was observed with increasing time between injections. Untreated schizophrenia was rated as very poor health-related quality of life with a mean (median) utility of 0.27 (0.20). The treated health states were rated at much higher utilities and were statistically significantly different (p < 0.001) from each other: (1) 2-weekly: mean (median) utility = 0.61 (0.65); (2) 4-weekly: mean (median) utility = 0.65 (0.70); (3) 3-monthly: mean (median) utility = 0.70 (0.75). CONCLUSIONS: This study has provided robust data indicating that approximately a 0.05 utility difference exists between treatment options, with the highest utility assigned to 3-monthly injections.

Group art therapy as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia: a randomised controlled trial (MATISSE).

OBJECTIVE: To examine the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of referral to group art therapy plus standard care, compared with referral to an activity group plus standard care and standard care alone, among people with schizophrenia. DESIGN: A three-arm, parallel group, single-blind, pragmatic, randomised controlled trial. Participants were randomised via an independent and remote telephone randomisation service using permuted blocks, stratified by study centre. SETTING: Study participants were recruited from secondary care mental health and social services in four UK centres. PARTICIPANTS: Potential participants were aged 18 years or over, had a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, confirmed by an examination of case notes, and provided written informed consent. We excluded those who were unable to speak sufficient English to complete the baseline assessment, those with severe cognitive impairment and those already receiving arts therapy. INTERVENTIONS: Group art therapy was delivered by registered art therapists according to nationally agreed standards. Groups had up to eight members, lasted for 90 minutes and ran for 12 months. Members were given access to a range of art materials and encouraged to use these to express themselves freely. Activity groups were designed to control for the non-specific effects of group art therapy. Group facilitators offered various activities and encouraged participants to collectively select those they wanted to pursue. Standard care involved follow-up from secondary care mental health services and the option of referral to other services, except arts therapies, as required. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Our co-primary outcomes were global functioning (measured using the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale - GAF) and mental health symptoms (measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale - PANSS) at 24 months. The main secondary outcomes were level of group attendance, social functioning, well-being, health-related quality of life, service utilisation and other costs measured 12 and 24 months after randomisation. RESULTS: Four hundred and seventeen people were recruited, of whom 355 (85%) were followed up at 2 years. Eighty-six (61%) of those randomised to art therapy and 73 (52%) of those randomised to activity groups attended at least one group. No differences in primary outcomes were found between the three study arms. The adjusted mean difference between art therapy and standard care at 24 months was -0.9 [95% confidence interval (CI) -3.8 to 2.1] on the GAF Scale and 0.7 (95% CI -3.1 to 4.6) on the PANSS Scale. Differences in secondary outcomes were not found, except that those referred to an activity group had fewer positive symptoms of schizophrenia at 24 months than those randomised to art therapy. Secondary analysis indicated that attendance at art therapy groups was not associated with improvements in global functioning or mental health. Although the total cost of the art therapy group was lower than the cost of the two comparison groups, referral to group art therapy did not appear to provide a cost-effective use of resources. CONCLUSIONS: Referring people with established schizophrenia to group art therapy as delivered in this randomised trial does not appear to improve global functioning or mental health of patients or provide a more cost-effective use of resources than standard care alone. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN 46150447. FUNDING: This project was funded by the NIHR Health Technology Assessment programme and will be published in full in Health Technology Assessment; Vol. 16, No. 8. See the HTA programme website for further project information.

Early psychosis in Asia: Insights from Japan.

The largest task for psychiatry in Japan today is the deinstitutionalization of patients with psychiatric disorders. In Japan, all citizens are covered by a national health plan, and about 70% of the total cost is covered by the national health insurance scheme. At present, however, there is still no category for early intervention in the national health reimbursement schedule. Recent research has shown that the mean duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) at seven university hospitals in Japan was 17.6 months. We present data using case vignettes suggesting that pharmacotherapy might be overused in prodromal cases. The concept of an At-Risk Mental State (ARMS)/prodromal state might not yet be widely recognized among Japanese psychiatrists. We outline early intervention initiatives in Japan; The Japanese Society for Prevention and Early Intervention in Psychiatry (JSEIP), and a representative early intervention facility for young people is the "Il Bosco" in Tokyo. There are several leading centers for early intervention research and practice in Japan. Most of them are driven by university departments of psychiatry with respect to both research and clinical activities. The development of services for early intervention is expected to reduce stigmatization, prevent suicide among young persons, and promote general knowledge about mental health. There are several common or similar issues among Asian countries, including service systems, community attitudes to psychiatric illness including stigma, and dependence on pharmacotherapy.

Impact of drug treatment history on comparative effectiveness research in schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: Randomized clinical trials frequently attract volunteer patients who were either non-compliant or seeking to switch therapies. Patients on active therapies often undergo a washout period after which a single medication is initiated. Observational research has the potential to compare alternative treatments under a wider range of clinical situations if care is taken to document each patient's treatment history. METHODS: This study used paid claims data from a large commercial insurer to investigate drug therapy outcomes in schizophrenia. Episodes of drug therapy were defined each time a patient initiated or restarted drug therapy using an antipsychotic, antidepressant or mood stabilizing medication. Episode definitions were based on calculations of continuous drug therapy using a 15-day gap definition. A total of 21,570 episodes of drug therapy were included in the analysis, some of which used two drugs as initial therapy. RESULTS: Most episodes were initiated using a mood stabilizing drug (27%) or an antidepressant (38%). Over 62% of all episodes were augmentation therapy in which a psychotropic drug was added to an existing psychotropic medication, followed by switching episodes (22%) and restart episodes (16%). Patient outcomes measured by either duration of uninterrupted therapy or one-year post-treatment cost varied significantly with patient treatment history, especially episode type. The comparative effectiveness of alternative therapies is sensitive to the extent to which treatment history is taken into account. CONCLUSIONS: Observational comparative effectiveness research should capture and evaluate patient outcomes across a wide range of patients taking into account the patient's treatment history.

The incidence and relative risk factors for developing cancer among patients with schizophrenia: a nine-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To estimate the incidence and relative risk of developing cancer as well as the mortality rate after cancer diagnosis for patients with schizophrenia compared with the general population. METHODS: Our population for this study was identified before the end of 1999. The study included 59,257 patients with schizophrenia and 178,156 age- and gender-matched individuals without schizophrenia as controls, who were selected from the 23,981,020 subjects in the National Health Insurance Research Database (NHIRD), which consists of 96% of the entire Taiwanese population. From the 2000 to 2008 NHIRD, we calculated the cancer incidence and survival time after cancer diagnosis in each of the two groups. Based on the International Classification of Diseases, 9th Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM), the cancers were divided into nine groups. RESULTS: During the nine-year follow-up period, 1145 (1.93%) of the patients with schizophrenia and 5294 (2.97%) of the control group developed cancer. The patients with schizophrenia had a significantly lower cancer incidence than those in the control group in both the male (OR=0.50, 95% CI, 0.46-0.55) and female (OR=0.81, 95% CI, 0.74-0.88) populations. Patients with schizophrenia were less likely to develop cancer than individuals in the control group for every cancer type except breast and cervical/uterine cancer. After adjustment using the Cox regression model, patients with schizophrenia had an overall decreased cancer risk (adjusted hazard ratio 0.71, 95% CI, 0.66-0.76) compared to the control population. For all cancer patients, the mortality adjusted hazard ratio for patients with schizophrenia versus the control group was 1.36 (95% CI, 1.24-1.50) after adjusting for other variables. CONCLUSIONS: Although the likelihood of developing cancer among patients with schizophrenia (0.64) was less than that of the non-schizophrenia group, the mortality rate among patients with schizophrenia was higher than that of the control group.

A retrospective population-based data analyses of inpatient care use and medical expenditure in people with intellectual disability co-occurring schizophrenia.

The paper aims to analyze the hospital inpatient care use and medical fee of people with ID co-occurring with schizophrenia in Taiwan. A nationwide data were collected concerning hospital admission and medical expenditure of people with ID (n = 2565) among national health insurance beneficiaries in Taiwan. Multiple regression analyses were undertaken to determine the role of the explanatory variables to hospital psychiatric inpatient care and medical expenditure. We found that there were 2565 individuals with ID used hospital psychiatric inpatient care among people with ID in 2005, and 686 cases (26.7%) co-occurring with schizophrenia according to hospital discharge claims. Those ID patients co-occurring with schizophrenia consumed more annual inpatient fee than those without schizophrenia (251,346 vs. 126,666 NTD) (p < 0.001). We found factors of female cases, longer hospital stay in chronic ward and general ward users among ID patients co-occurring with schizophrenia used more hospital inpatient care (R(2) = 0.417). Annual hospital inpatient days were significantly affected by factors of severe illness card holder, annual inpatient care fee, longer hospital stay in acute or chronic ward (R(2) = 0.746). Those factors of female cases, high inpatient care users, longer hospital stay in acute ward and general ward were consuming more medical care fee than their counterparts (R(2) = 0.620). The study highlights the future study should examine the efficacy of hospital inpatient care for people with ID and schizophrenia.

The MATISSE study: a randomised trial of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia.

BACKGROUND: Art Therapy has been promoted as a means of helping people who may find it difficult to express themselves verbally engage in psychological treatment. Group Art Therapy has been widely used as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia but there have been few attempts to examine its effects and cost effectiveness has not been examined. The MATISSE study aims to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of group Art Therapy for people with schizophrenia. METHOD/DESIGN: The MATISSE study is a three-arm, parallel group, pragmatic, randomised, controlled trial of referral to group Art Therapy plus standard care, referral to an attention control 'activity' group plus standard care, or standard care alone. Study participants were recruited from inpatient and community-based mental health and social care services at four centres in England and Northern Ireland. Participants were aged over 18 years with a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, confirmed by an examination of case notes using operationalised criteria. Participants were then randomised via an independent and remote telephone randomisation service using permuted stacked blocks, stratified by site. Art Therapy and activity groups were made available to participants once a week for up to 12 months. Outcome measures were assessed by researchers masked to allocation status at 12 and 24 months after randomisation. Participants and care givers were aware which arm of the trial participants were allocated to. The primary outcomes for the study are global functioning (measured using the Global Assessment of Functioning scale) and mental health symptoms (measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) assessed at 24 months. Secondary outcomes were assessed at 12 and 24 months and comprise levels of group attendance, social function, satisfaction with care, mental wellbeing, and costs. DISCUSSION: We believe that this is the first large scale pragmatic trial of Art Therapy for people with schizophrenia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46150447.

[Ambulatory aftercare of forensic patients after release]. / Ambulante Sicherungsnachsorge.

OBJECTIVE: The efficacy of specific forensic outpatient treatment should be investigated. METHODS: In 2000 the Ministry of Social Affairs of the State of Bavaria, Germany, implemented a model for forensic outpatient treatment. Three forensic hospitals established forensic outpatient clinics. The Department of Forensic Psychiatry of the Psychiatric Hospital of the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich evaluated the treatment and management programs with financial support from the Ministry. RESULTS: 111 mentally ill offenders were included after release from forensic hospitals. 65 % suffered from schizophrenia. In 4.5 years time of observation a recidivism rate of 0.9 % of severe offences could be found (3.6 % including cases of suspicion). 17 % of the patients needed a rehospitalisation and 12 % a legal intervention. At the end of the observation period 42 patients still needed treatment, but 44 patients continued therapy in the forensic outpatient setting out of own interests. CONCLUSIONS: In accordance to literature very low rates of criminal recidivism under specific forensic outpatient aftercare could be found, and in addition a relatively high compliance with the treatment.