Effects of multivitamin, mineral and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation on aggression among long-stay psychiatric in-patients: randomised clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: Aggression and violent incidents are a major concern in psychiatric in-patient care. Nutritional supplementation has been found to reduce aggressive incidents and rule violations in forensic populations and children with behavioural problems. AIMS: To assess whether multivitamin, mineral and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation would reduce the number of aggressive incidents among long-stay psychiatric in-patients. METHOD: The trial was a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised, double-blind placebo-controlled study. Data were collected from 25 July 2016 to 29 October 2019, at eight local sites for mental healthcare in The Netherlands and Belgium. Participants were randomised (1:1) to receive 6-month treatment with either three supplements containing multivitamins, minerals and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid, or placebo. The primary outcome was the number of aggressive incidents, determined by the Staff Observation Aggression Scale - Revised (SOAS-R). Secondary outcomes were patient quality of life, affective symptoms and adverse events. RESULTS: In total, 176 participants were randomised (supplements, n = 87; placebo, n = 89). Participants were on average 49.3 years old (s.d. 14.5) and 64.2% were male. Most patients had a psychotic disorder (60.8%). The primary outcome of SOAS-R incidents was similar in supplement (1.03 incidents per month, 95% CI 0.74-1.37) and placebo groups (0.90 incidents per month, 95% CI 0.65-1.19), with a rate ratio of 1.08 (95% CI 0.67-1.74, P = 0.75). Differential effects were not found in sensitivity analyses on the SOAS-R or on secondary outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Six months of nutritional supplementation did not reduce aggressive incidents among long-stay psychiatric in-patients.

Aggressive behaviour of inpatients with acquired brain injury.

OBJECTIVE: To study the prevalence, nature and determinants of aggression among inpatients with acquired brain injury. BACKGROUND: Patients with acquired brain injury often have difficulty in controlling their aggressive impulses. DESIGN: A prospective observational study design. METHODS: By means of the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised, the prevalence, nature and severity of aggressive behaviour of inpatients with acquired brain injury was assessed on a neuropsychiatric treatment ward with 45 beds. Additional data on patient-related variables were gathered from the patients' files. RESULTS: In total, 388 aggressive incidents were recorded over 17 weeks. Of a total of 57 patients included, 24 (42%) patients had engaged in aggressive behaviour on one or more occasions. A relatively small proportion of patients (n=8; 14%) was found to be responsible for the majority of incidents (n=332; 86%). The vast majority of aggression incidents (n=270; 70%) were directly preceded by interactions between patients and nursing staff. In line with this, most incidents occurred at times of high contact intensity. Aggressive behaviour was associated with male gender, length of stay at the ward, legal status and hypoxia as the cause of brain injury. CONCLUSION: Aggression was found to be highly prevalent among inpatients with acquired brain injury. The results suggest that for the prevention of aggression on the ward, it may be highly effective to develop individually tailored interventions for the subgroup with serious aggression problems. RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Insight into the frequency, nature and determinants of aggressive behaviour in inpatients with acquired brain injury provides nurses with tools for the prevention and treatment of aggressive behaviour.

Duration of antidepressant drug treatment and its influence on risk of relapse/recurrence: immortal and neglected time bias.

Several observational studies have found a higher risk of recurrence/relapse of depression for patients who discontinue antidepressant use compared with those who continue. This study demonstrated that measurement of follow-up time can be subject to immortal and neglected time bias. Data were obtained from the 2001 Second Dutch National Survey of General Practice. The study population was composed of antidepressant users with a registered depression diagnosis, divided into early discontinuers and continuing users. Two methods were used to measure time to relapse/recurrence. Method 1, used in previously mentioned studies, measured the beginning of follow-up 6 months after starting antidepressant therapy. Method 2 constructed individual treatment episodes for each patient and measured follow-up from actual end-of-treatment episode. The Cox proportional hazards model produced a risk ratio of 1.58 (95% confidence interval: 1.02, 2.45) for method 1, suggesting a higher risk of relapse/recurrence for early discontinuers. In method 2, a statistically nonsignificant risk ratio of 0.77 (95% confidence interval: 0.49, 1.21) was produced, indicating no difference in risk of relapse/recurrence. The authors found the method used in previous studies subject to bias. Applying a different method, accounting for immortal and neglected time bias, eliminated the protective effects of longer treatments.

Does the length of the first antidepressant treatment episode influence risk and time to a second episode?

Antidepressant treatment in primary care is inconsistent with treatment recommendations, and many patients discontinue treatment within 6 months. How this affects treatment outcomes is unknown. The aim of this study was to assess how length of the first antidepressant episode influences risk and time to a second treatment episode within 5 years.The study population included 9423 adults (67% women; mean age, 47.3 years) who initiated selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor use in 1998 or 1999. Based on the length of the first antidepressant treatment episode, patients were divided into early discontinuers (<6 months), continuing users (6-12 months), and persistent users (>12 months). The Cox proportional hazards model was used to estimate risk ratios (RRs) for the association between the length of the first antidepressant treatment episode and time to reinitiating antidepressant treatment.Time to a second treatment episode did not differ significantly between continuing users and early discontinuers (RR, 0.99; 95% confidence interval, 0.92-1.07). Persistent users showed a higher risk of experiencing a second treatment episode than early discontinuers (RR, 1.23; 95% confidence interval, 1.15-1.32).In conclusion, the risk of experiencing a second antidepressant treatment episode did not differ for those who used antidepressants for 6 to 12 months and those who discontinued early. In general, there is limited information on how length of an antidepressant treatment episode influences the risk of reinitiating treatment of patients in primary care. More research is needed to investigate the effectiveness of antidepressant drug treatment patterns in preventing relapse or recurrence in primary care populations.

The correspondence between the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised and two other indicators for aggressive incidents.

Previous research has shown good psychometric properties of the Staff Observation Aggression Scale-Revised (SOAS-R). However, it has never been investigated what proportion of aggressive incidents occurring in facilities is documented with the SOAS-R. Furthermore, if incidents are underreported, the consequences for the categorization of clients into aggressive and nonaggressive subgroups based on the SOAS-R are unknown. To examine this, in four inpatient psychiatric facilities for adults with mild intellectual disabilities, aggressive incidents were documented with the SOAS-R and two other indicators of aggressive incidents: the daily staff reports on clients' behavior and reports on of the use of restraints. Less than half of the incidents documented with the staff and restraint reports were also documented with the SOAS-R. On the other way around, however, it was also found that a substantial proportion of incidents reported on SOAS-R forms were not documented in the daily staff reports, which points to a more general problem of underreporting aggressive behavior. Apart from that, categorization of clients into an aggressive and a nonaggressive subgroup with SOAS-R data collected during 1 month or longer corresponded largely with the categorization based on both other indicators. This study showed that underreporting of aggressive incidents is likely to occur with the SOAS-R, making the instrument less suitable to assess absolute aggression incidence in facilities. Still, the SOAS-R seems a good instrument to categorize clients into aggressive and nonaggressive subgroups. Ways to improve the compliance of the ward team to document all aggressive incidents are addressed in the Discussion section of this article.

Patients' preferences for seclusion or forced medication in acute psychiatric emergency in the Netherlands.

OBJECTIVES: This study examined patients' preferences for coercive measures in case of emergency situations on acute psychiatric wards. METHODS: From November 2004 until January 2006, 104 adult patients completed a questionnaire after they underwent seclusion, nonconsensual medication, or both on one of three acute psychiatric wards in the Netherlands. RESULTS: Equal numbers of patients preferred seclusion and medication, and both measures were equal in perceived aversiveness and perceived efficacy. Men more often than women expressed a preference for seclusion. Patients who understood why the measure was necessary and acquiesced to it retrospectively held more positive views of the efficacy of the measure. CONCLUSIONS: Many patients on acute psychiatric wards have a clear preference between seclusion and medication. Patients appreciated receiving explanations of the reasons for the use of a restrictive measure and discussing their preferences with staff.

Pharmacotherapy for the treatment of aggressive behavior in general adult psychiatry: A systematic review.

OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence for pharmacologic management of outwardly directed aggressive behavior in general adult psychiatry. DATA SOURCES: Literature searches in PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Cochrane libraries from 1966 through March 2005 were used to identify relevant studies. The keywords aggression, violence, anger, and hostility combined with drug therapy, psychotropic drugs, adrenergic beta-antagonists, anticonvulsants, anti-depressants, antipsychotic agents, benzodiazepines, and lithium were searched. Furthermore, the retrieved publications were searched for additional references. STUDY SELECTION: All randomized controlled trials addressing pharmacotherapy for aggression or aggression-related symptoms were included, except studies addressing the "emergency situation" and studies conducted in specialized psychiatric or non-psychiatric settings. DATA EXTRACTION: Evidence synthesis was performed using the "best-evidence principle." Two authors independently adjudicated methodological quality and generalizability to daily clinical practice. DATA SYNTHESIS: Thirty-five randomized controlled trials met the inclusion criteria and were evaluated. On the basis of a best-evidence synthesis model, weak evidence for antiaggressive effects of antipsychotics, anti-depressants, anticonvulsants, and beta-adrenergic-blocking drugs was found. Atypical antipsychotics appeared superior to typical antipsychotics. The use of various outcome measures and insufficient data reporting in the individual studies hampered the quantitative assessment of efficacy across studies. Further limitations of the available randomized controlled trials included small sample sizes, short study duration, and poor generalizability to daily clinical practice setting. CONCLUSIONS: Whereas pharmacotherapy is frequently applied in aggressive patients, only weak evidence of efficacy of various drug classes was found. Consensus about the use of aggression measurement scales in clinical trials is necessary for future research. Furthermore, large-scale trials with more naturalistic designs, as opposed to classical randomized controlled trials with strict inclusion and exclusion criteria, may be advisable in order to obtain results that are more generalizable to daily clinical practice.

Are patients' views on seclusion associated with lack of privacy in the ward?

The lack of single-bed rooms in psychiatric wards may reduce the possibility of patients getting sufficient rest and privacy and may increase their risk of being overstimulated. This study explored whether residing in single- versus multiple-bed rooms in a psychiatric ward was associated with psychiatric patients' opinions about seclusion. More specifically, it was studied whether patients who had shared a room with other patients prior to seclusion rated seclusion more favorably. It was thought that they would rate seclusion more favorably due to the lack of rest they previously experienced in their regular room. For this, the Patient View-of-Seclusion Questionnaire of Hammill, McEvoy, Koral, and Schneider [Hammill, K., McEvoy, J., Koral, H., & Schneider, N. (1989). Hospitalized schizophrenic patient views about seclusion. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, 50, 174-177] was completed by 54 secluded adult patients hospitalized in a locked ward of a Dutch psychiatric hospital. A significant association was found between residing in multiple-bed rooms prior to seclusion and a less negative view on seclusion. This finding suggests that the ward environment may have a rather large impact on how seclusion is perceived. The results underline the need for single-bed rooms in the treatment of psychiatric inpatients.

Haloperidol dose when used as active comparator in randomized controlled trials with atypical antipsychotics in schizophrenia: comparison with officially recommended doses.

OBJECTIVE: To determine the doses of haloperidol as a comparator drug in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) with atypical antipsychotics in patients with schizophrenia and to compare these doses with the officially recommended doses for haloperidol in the United States and the United Kingdom. DATA SOURCES: We searched for RCTs conducted and published in English in full before January 2005 in which atypical antipsychotics were compared with haloperidol for the treatment of schizophrenia. We searched for Cochrane Reviews in which 1 of the following atypical antipsychotics was evaluated for the treatment of patients with schizophrenia, schizophreniform psychosis, or other primary psychosis: amisulpride, aripiprazole, olanzapine, quetiapine, risperidone, sertindole, and ziprasidone. For the gap between the end point of inclusion of the studies in the Cochrane Reviews and January 2005, we electronically searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials for any further RCTs in which atypical antipsychotics were compared with haloperidol for the same indication. Search terms used were haloperidol and schizophren and haloperidol and psychotic, as well as the names of the selected atypical antipsychotics for the years that were not covered by the Cochrane Reviews. For each study, the required dose and mean dose of haloperidol were compared with officially recommended doses of haloperidol in U.S. (Food and Drug Administration) and U.K. (British National Formulary) guidelines. DATA SYNTHESIS: In all of the included studies (N = 49), the midpoints of the required doses were above the midpoint of the official recommended doses in the United States and United Kingdom for moderately ill patients. In 94% (U.S.) and 80% (U.K.) of the studies, they were above the upper border of the recommended doses. Compared with recommended doses for severely ill patients in both the United Kingdom and United States (range, 6-15 mg daily), in 17 studies (35%) the mean actual used dose was above the upper dose border for severely ill patients (15 mg daily). CONCLUSIONS: Nearly all randomized clinical trials used haloperidol in doses that were higher than the official recommended doses for moderately ill or even severely ill patients. Therefore, it is probable that the results of the RCTs were affected by the high dose of haloperidol, hampering the interpretation of the effects of atypical anti-psychotics in their comparison with haloperidol.

Correlated measures in longitudinal analysis of daily drug use patterns in a general intensive care unit.

PURPOSE: The objective of the present study is to compare two different study designs (with and without corrections for correlated measures) to identify possible determinants of psychotropic drug use in an intensive care unit (ICU). METHODS: In a logistic regression analysis, odds ratios (OR) were calculated for days in which patients were exposed to psychotropics compared with non-exposed days. In order to adjust for correlated measures, logistic regression with a logistic binomial model was applied. RESULTS: We found that adjustment for correlated measures did not result in major changes in the OR. However, with more observations per patient parameter, adjustment for correlation has greater effect. CONCLUSIONS: Adjustment for correlated measures may be useful in longitudinal drug analyses.

Short-acting parenteral antipsychotics drive choice for classical versus atypical agents.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate which antipsychotics (classical versus atypical) are prescribed in a psychiatric hospital and which determinants affect the choice for one of these two classes of antipsychotics in newly admitted patients. METHODS: In a retrospective cohort design, 522 newly admitted patients were followed from the date of admission until discharge from the hospital. In the cohort of newly admitted patients treated with an oral antipsychotic, a nested case-control study was conducted considering recipients of an atypical agent as cases. Controls were all other cohort members. The association of patient characteristics and the choice between classical versus atypical antipsychotics was studied using logistic regression analysis. The same analysis was performed with adjustment for possible confounding factors (age group, gender, DSM-IV diagnoses, use of short-acting parenteral antipsychotic, global assessment of functioning score, involuntary admissions and involuntary measures). RESULTS: Patients treated with classical oral antipsychotics were more often previously treated with short-acting parenteral antipsychotics than patients treated with atypical antipsychotics (40.8% vs 15.2%; adjusted OR=0.20 95% CI=0.09-0.44). No statistically significant difference was found between patients with different severities of disease. DISCUSSION: Availability of injectable forms seems to drive the choice for oral antipsychotic agents. Future introductions of short-acting parenteral atypical antipsychotics may have a large impact on first-choice oral antipsychotic treatment.