SynopsisRecent data from a 2-year follow-up of functional non-affective psychosis, and particularly schizophrenia, favoured social selection rather than social causation theory. Data concerning the cohort were compared with inter- and intra-generational mobility in a random Dutch sample. The results indicate that the educational and occupational mobility of patients, relative to their fathers, was greater than expected. Although patients were better educated than the random sample, they fared less well occupationally. An analysis of patterns of occupational mobility before and after the onset of psychosis also showed that social selection played a major role in achieving social status. The outcome of patients' occupational career at follow-up was poor, and only a minority succeeded in obtaining or keeping a regular job.

Assessment of needs for care is crucial in the evaluation of ongoing changes from institutional care to various forms of day- and outpatient treatment. Do patients really do better in the community and are they adequately cared for? The 15-year follow-up of a Dutch incidence cohort of patients with schizophrenia and other functional non-affective psychoses showed that 47 (out of 63) patients had positive ratings of symptoms and disabilities. They were assessed by means of the Needs for Care Assessment Schedule, which articulates the problems and corresponding interventions resulting in a judgement of met or unmet need for treatment or assessment. There was a mean of 2.1 clinical problems and 2.1 social problems per patient. Few problems were considered to generate unmet needs: 14% of the clinical problems and only 7% of the social problems. Nevertheless, 32% of the patients had one or more unmet needs. These results were compared with data from six research centres in the United Kingdom (Camberwell, Oxford and South Glamorgan), Canada (Montreal), Italy (Verona) and Finland (Tampere). Despite differences in health care settings in the four countries, the ratio of met to unmet needs (about 4-5 to 1) among chronic, mostly schizophrenic patients is more or less the same with the exception of an apparently underserved hostel population in Oxford and the Finnish patient population probably due to high expectations with respect to independent community living.

Objective: Evaluations of the process of providing mental health care have been hampered because a tool to systematically describe the interventions actually provided by the services was lacking. In this paper the development of such a tool (the International Classification of Mental Health Care; ICMHC) is described. Method: Subsequent versions of the ICMHC were developed, using comments from experts in 24 WHO field centres and results from a number of field trials. In the final version 10 Modalities of Care can be used to describe Modules of Care, using the Level of Specialization scale. The inter‐rater reliability of this version was evaluated by the Italian research team, using data from 43 services. Results: Reliability ranged from excellent for nine modalities to reasonably good for the remaining modality. Conclusion: In the context of evaluation studies, the ICMHC can be used to describe systematically mental health care interventions.

SynopsisIn order to evaluate Foulds' hierarchical model of psychiatric illness, a study was carried out using data from a 3-year follow-up of patients suffering from functional non-affective psychoses. Of the 177 Present State Examinations carried out 86% yielded symptom patterns compatible with the model. It was shown that failures to fit the hierarchy can be explained either by measurement error or by the masking of major symptoms by the simultaneous presence of minor ones. A one-dimensional scale to measure the severity of psychiatric illness was constructed. Patients' scores were compared with ratings on the Index of Definition and the diagnosis of current mental state. The results of these comparisons were considered to be supportive validatory evidence. Some of the implications of the model and the data are discussed.

No abstract

Severe and long term mental disorders, like schizophrenia, show in general a wide range of psychiatric signs and symptoms, psychological and physiological impairments and social disablement (Shepherd, 1994; Wing, 1982) reflecting a variety of mental health needs. Many studies provide only a cross-sectional view of the clinical and social problems of the patient population, for example at intake or admission to a mental hospital. Longitudinal studies following patients after discharge for some period of months or years show in general the expected improvement of functioning (e.g. Nienhuis et al., 1994), but as far as only chronic patients are concerned such a positive change is much less noted. The concept of chronicity of mental disorders would presume that after some time needs are fairly predictable and stable and do not change much over time. Our investigation on the long-term course of schizophrenia (Wiersma et al., 1996; 1997) enables us to study over a period of two years, from 15 to 17 years since first onset of psychosis, the stability or variability of needs in schizophrenic disorder. We are not aware of empirical studies on changes in needs among patients with long-term disorders.

No abstract

No abstract