Patients and physician’s self-assessment regarding clinical stability in severe mental disorders: a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Objective This study explores the relationship between patients’ self-assessment and physicians’ evaluation regarding clinical stability. Methods This cross-sectional study was carried out at the general outpatient clinic of the Instituto de Psiquiatria da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IPUB-UFRJ) in a large sample (1,447) of outpatients, of which 67.9% were patients with severe mental disorders (SMD). We collected information using a structured questionnaire developed for this purpose, filled in by the patient’s physician. Clinical stability was assessed by means of five psychiatric instability criteria and by the physician’s global clinical impression over the six previous months. The patients’ self-assessment was based on a question about how they evaluated their health status: stable/better, worse, does not know. For the analyses, patients’ self-evaluation was considered as our standard. Results The sample was composed of 824 (57%) women with an average age of 49 years. The most prevalent diagnoses within the SMD category corresponded to 937 patients, of whom 846 (90.3%) assessed themselves as stable/better. The physicians’ evaluations agreed more with patients with bipolar disorders and less with schizophrenics regarding stability. As for patients with depressive disorder, physicians agreed more with them regarding instability. Conclusion The data analysis confirms our hypothesis that the self-assessment made by patients with SMD was accurate regarding their health condition, and that the self-assessment made by patients who considered themselves stable agree with the physicians’ evaluation.