Abstract
Aims and method Electronic patient records were used to investigate the level of engagement and treatment that patients with very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis (VLOSLP) had with mental health services.
Results Of 131 patients assessed and diagnosed, 63 (48%) were taking antipsychotic treatment at 3 months, 46 (35%) at 6 months and 36 (27%) at 12 months. At discharge from mental health services, 54% of patients had failed to engage with services or became lost to follow-up, 18% had engaged with services but were not taking antipsychotic medication and only 28% were taking treatment.
Clinical implications Results showed that less than half of the patients with VLOSLP were commenced on antipsychotic treatment and less than a third remained on treatment at 1 year or at point of discharge. This highlights the need for services to consider being more assertive in taking potentially effective treatment to this patient group.
A Cochrane review1 has concluded that there is no good randomised clinical trial evidence on which to base treatment guidelines for patients with very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis (VLOSLP),2 yet open treatment with atypical antipsychotics has been associated with improvements in symptoms at least as good as those seen in younger patients with schizophrenia or patients with early-onset schizophrenia who have grown old,3–5 and antipsychotic treatment is the cornerstone of care pathways. Little is known about how many patients seen within specialist mental health services are engaged by those services and given antipsychotic treatment. To address this, we conducted a retrospective electronic patient record search.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 185-186 |
| Number of pages | 2 |
| Journal | Psychiatrist |
| Volume | 40 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Early online date | 1 Aug 2016 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 1 Aug 2016 |
Access to Document
- Service and treatment engagement_HOWARD_Published Aug2016_GOLD VoR (CC BY)
This is an open-access article published by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.