The Need to Adapt the Psychiatric Clinical Assessment to the Digital Age: A Practical Approach

The use of electronic devices and social media is becoming a ubiquitous part of most people's lives. Although researchers are exploring the sequelae of such use, little attention has been given to the importance of digital media use in routine psychiatric assessments of patients. The nature of technology use is relevant to understanding a patient's lifestyle and activities, the same way that it is important to evaluate the patient's occupation, functioning, and general activities. The authors propose a framework for psychiatric inquiry into digital media use, emphasizing that such inquiry should focus on quality of use, including emotional and behavioral consequences, rather than simply the amount of use.

Association between gastrointestinal events and persistence with osteoporosis therapy: analysis of administrative claims of a U.S. managed care population

BACKGROUND

A large proportion of patients do not persist with osteoporosis (OP) therapy. Gastrointestinal (GI) events (e.g., gastroesophageal reflux disease and nausea/vomiting) are common among OP patients receiving OP therapy and may impact persistence with treatment.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the association of GI events and persistence with OP therapy.

METHODS

Using a large U.S. administrative claims database, we studied women aged ≥ 55 years who received oral bisphosphonate (BIS) as their first OP therapy from 2002-2009. The index date was the first pharmacy claim date recorded for oral BIS therapy; the baseline period was 12 months pre-index, and follow-up was 12 months post-index. Patients were considered persistent with therapy if they had continuous refills of the index drug class without additional drug therapy from a different drug class from the index date until the end of the follow-up period with no gaps in supply greater than 45 days. Discontinuation was defined as the first gap greater than 45 days during which there was no evidence of refills of OP medication. The association between post-treatment GI events and the risk of discontinuation or switching was modeled with Cox regression stratified by presence of baseline GI events and adjusted for baseline clinical and demographic characteristics.

RESULTS

Of the 75,593 women who met eligibility criteria, 59.9% discontinued BIS; 39.3% were persistent; and 0.5% switched to non-BIS. GI events were diagnosed in 20,073 patients (26.6%) during baseline and in 21,142 (28.0%) in the post-treatment period (12-month follow-up post-index). Patients with post-treatment GI diagnosis were 35.6% more likely to discontinue or switch treatment (HR = 1.356, 95% CI = 1.318-1.396) during the 12-month follow-up compared with those without post-treatment GI diagnosis. GI events that occurred closer to treatment discontinuation or switching were associated with a greater risk of discontinuation or switching: 37.9% (HR = 1.379, 95% CI = 1.338-1.421) for GI events within 6 months of discontinuation or switching and 45.6% (HR = 1.456, 95% CI = 1.408-1.505) for GI events within 3 months of discontinuation or switching.

CONCLUSIONS

Among women aged 55 years or older in a U.S. managed care population, post-treatment GI events were associated with a higher risk of discontinuation of oral BIS or switching to non-BIS.

[A prospective study of the psychopathological variables associated with suicidality among schizophrenic patients]

INTRODUCTION

This study aimed to of identify the psychopathological profile of suicidal schizophrenic patients during a period of stability, thereby helping to define the trait aspect of these variables.

METHOD

Consecutively admitted schizophrenic patients fulfilling criteria for <<suicidal>> and <<non-suicidal>> groups were assessed at baseline and one year later for sociodemographic, general clinical and psychopathological features, by the positive and negative subscales of the Positive and Negative Syndromes Scale (PANSS), Calgary Depression Scale, Beck Hopelessness Scale and Amador Insight Scale (first three items).

RESULTS

A total of 57 of 73 patients were available for re-evaluation. The suicidal group showed higher depression and hopelessness scores. Hopelessness and lower negative symptomatology identified most of the suicidal (66.7%) and non-suicidal (70%) patients. Hopelessness was the most important variable for identifying suicidality.

CONCLUSIONS

Under conditions of illness stability, this profile complements the acute phase profiles identified by most studies in the literature, and should foster improved risk recognition for targeting preventive interventions.

Adjunctive imipramine for a broader group of post-psychotic depressions in schizophrenia

As an expansion of work examining the usefulness of adjunctive imipramine added to fluphenazine decanoate and benztropine in the treatment of post-psychotic depression, a previously successful and informative protocol was extended to a larger and more heterogeneous cohort of clinic and day-treatment patients. Although the benefit of the adjunctive antidepressant strategy was still observable in the total sample, as calculated by the prospectively intended data analysis, the findings were weaker than those obtained for the initial cohort. Owing to the possibility that differences between the later and earlier cohorts might account for the muted nature of the benefit, a post-hoc analysis was undertaken. This revealed that the later cohort was sicker in general and more psychotic in particular. The later cohort was also treated with lower doses of neuroleptic medication while remaining out of hospital longer, consistent with more recent treatment trends. It was also possible that the later cohort was subtly selected for more refractoriness of depression, since treatment of post-psychotic depression with adjunctive antidepressants had become more commonplace, and patients responding to this in general practice would not have gone on to be referred to the study. Thus a benefit from adjunctive antidepressant medication persists, but more remains to be learned about its character and likelihood in specific situations.

Schizophrenia and the life cycle

We reframe the longitudinal treatment of persons with schizophrenia from the perspective of phases in adult development. This approach articulates the need for different interventions of varying intensities over the person's lifetime. The paper discusses the implications of an adult developmental perspective in managing pharmacologic treatment and psychosocial interventions, and in reallocating financial resources for improved long-term outcomes. This perspective is especially useful in the context of a comprehensive community mental health program permitting access to a continuum of services throughout the lifecycle.

The case for a services-based approach to payment for mental illness under national health care reform

In this position paper drafted by the committee on psychopathology of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry, the authors discuss merits and disadvantages of three different approaches to equitable coverage of mental illness: coverage for selected psychiatric diagnoses, coverage based on severity of impairment, and coverage of services. They believe that coverage of selected disorders has political appeal but is discriminatory and arbitrary; it is also impractical because clinicians may overdiagnose conditions covered by insurance and underdiagnose excluded conditions. Coverage based on severity of impairment, or disability, has similar limitations. The authors believe services should be the principal basis for coverage, as under general medical insurance. The approach is nondiscriminatory, and costs can be controlled through such means as managed care, changes in the payment system, or benefit design.

Trimipramine in physical illness with depression

To assess whether tricyclic antidepressants are useful in patients with a serious physical disorder who develop symptoms of major depression, 42 medically ill outpatients who met RDC criteria for endogenous major depression and had a Raskin depression score of at least 7 were studied. The patients were randomly assigned to a 6-week trial of trimipramine or placebo under double-blind conditions. In the placebo group, depressive symptoms improved when the physical disorder improved; in the trimipramine group, improvement was seen in the depressive symptoms even when there was no concomitant improvement in physical condition.

Integrative and sealing-over recoveries from schizophrenia: distinguishing case studies

The types of recovery from an acute schizophrenic break are manifold: one patient "returns" to reality and walks away as if untouched; another despairs for months about "losing control" of himself; still another finds his reentrance into the world less attractive than his psychotic exit. Each "copes" with his psychosis uniquely, both during and after the acute regression. Nevertheless, from observing and treating several acutely psychotic and recovered schizophrenics on a National Institute of Mental Health clinical research unit, we have noted that individual recovery styles tend to cluster around one of two distinct types--integrative or sealing-over. Broadly defined, the sealing-over patient prefers not to think about his psychotic experience during recovery, the integrator, by contrast, is interested in the psychotic experience and desires to place it into some coherent perspective. Specific behavioral definitions and dynamic considerations of these concepts have been presented elsewhere (McGlashan et al., 1975; Levy et al., 1975). As recovery "styles," we are talking about dichotomies, such as expansion versus constriction and flexibility versus rigidity of controls over consciousness, which in turn determine the range of feelings, thoughts, and actions that a person permits himself and is reasonably comfortable with. This paper illustrates and further delineates these recovery styles with specific cases of two young women who each experienced a first psychotic break and were treated on our clinical research unit. Though but two of many acute schizophrenics admitted to our unit, these patients demonstrated clinical courses most representative of each recovery style and provided rich material for a greater understanding of the dynamics of integration and sealing-over.