Health-related quality of life of primary care patients with depressive disorders

Background

Depressive disorders are known to impair health-related quality of life (HRQoL) both in the short and long term. However, the determinants of long-term HRQoL outcomes in primary care patients with depressive disorders remain unclear.

Methods

In a primary care cohort study of patients with depressive disorders, 82% of 137 patients were prospectively followed up for five years. Psychiatric disorders were diagnosed with SCID-I/P and SCID-II interviews; clinical, psychosocial and socio-economic factors were investigated by rating scales and questionnaires plus medical and psychiatric records. HRQoL was measured with the generic 15D instrument at baseline and five years, and compared with an age-standardized general population sample (n = 3707) at five years.

Results

Depression affected the 15D total score and almost all dimensions at both time points. At the end of follow-up, HRQoL of patients in major depressive episode (MDE) was particularly low, and the association between severity of depression (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI]) and HRQoL was very strong (r = −0.804). The most significant predictors for change in HRQoL were changes in BDI and Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) scores. The mean 15D score of depressive primary care patients at five years was much worse than in the age-standardized general population, reaching normal range only among patients who were in clinical remission and had virtually no symptoms.

Conclusions

Among depressive primary care patients, presence of current depressive symptoms markedly reduces HRQoL, with symptoms of concurrent anxiety also having a marked impact. For HRQoL to normalize, current depressive and anxiety symptoms must be virtually absent.

The Helsinki approach to face transplantation

AIM

We herein describe the establishment of the Helsinki Vascularized Composite Allotransplantation (VCA) program and its execution in the first two face transplant cases.

METHODS & PATIENTS

The Helsinki VCA program initially required the fulfillment of legal, hospital, financial, and ethical requirements. Thereafter, the assembling of a multidisciplinary team commenced. A team of Plastic, maxillofacial and ENT surgeons comprise the facial VCA team. The protocol involves collaboration with the Solid Organ Transplant (SOT) team, transplant immunology, immunosuppression, microbiology, psychiatric evaluation, well-defined VCA indications and informed consent. Between 2011 and 2017 two patients were selected for transplantation. Both patients had a severe composite facial deformity involving the maxilla and mandible following earlier ballistic injury.

RESULTS

Patient 1 was a 35 year-old male who underwent successful near total face transplantation in February 2016 and at 30 months he has a good aesthetic outcome with symmetrical restoration of the central face and good sensory and symmetrical motor functional outcomes. Patient 2 was a 58 year-old male who underwent full face transplantation in March 2018 and at 5 months he has recovered without major problems.

CONCLUSION

A successful facial VCA program requires a well-prepared research protocol, experts from multiple specialties and careful patient selection. The establishment of the Helsinki VCA program required long and thorough planning and resulted in the first two Nordic face transplantation cases. This protocol now forms the platform (as a proof of concept) for other types of vascularized composite allotransplantations.

Associations of psychotic-like or manic-like experiences with later psychiatric disorders: An 11-year follow-up study of middle-aged adults

Psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) and manic-like experiences (MLEs) have been found to be associated with elevated risk for future psychotic disorders. However, most follow-up studies have been conducted on adolescent and young adult samples leaving the predictive value of PLEs and MLEs among middle-aged subjects largely unknown. Here we report findings of an 11-year follow-up study of middle-aged subjects with PLEs (n=86) or MLEs (n=45) at baseline and population controls (n=62). We found that PLEs or MLEs at baseline did not predict conversion to psychosis during an 11-year follow-up in this age group. However, MLEs at baseline were associated with increased risk of nonpsychotic psychiatric disorders at follow-up whereas PLEs were not. Baseline neuropsychological performance was not associated with later psychiatric disorders in groups with PLEs or MLEs. In conclusion, our results suggest that among middle-aged subjects having PLEs or MLEs may not be a similar risk for future psychotic disorders as in younger age groups. However, studies with larger study groups and longer follow-up periods are needed in the future.

How size matters: exploring the association between quality of mental health services and catchment area size

BACKGROUND

The diversity of mental health and substance abuse services (MHS) available to service users is seen as an indicator of the quality of the service system. In most countries MHS are provided by a mix of public, private and third sector providers. In Finland, officially, the municipalities are responsible for organizing the services needed, but the real extent and roles of private and third sector service providers are not known. Our previous study showed that the catchment area population size was strongly associated with diversity of mental health services. It is not known whether this was due to some types of services or some provider types being more sensitive to the size effect than others. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between area population size and diversity of mental health services, i.e. which types of services and which service providers' contributions are sensitive to population size.

METHODS

To map and classify services, we used the ESMS-R. The diversity of services was defined as the count of main types of care. Providers were classified as public, private or third sectors.

RESULTS

The diversity of outpatient, residential and voluntary services correlated positively with catchment area population size. The strongest positive correlation between the size of population and services available was found in third sector activities followed by public providers, but no correlation was found for diversity of private services. The third sector and public corporations each provided 44 % of the service units. Third sector providers produced all self-help services and most of the day care services. Third sector and private companies provided a significant part (59 %) of the residential care service units.

CONCLUSIONS

Significant positive correlations were found between size of catchment area population and diversity of residential, outpatient and voluntary services, indicating that these services concentrate on areas with larger population bases. The third sector seems to significantly complement the public sector in providing different services. Thus the third sector be needs to be functionally integrated with other MHS services to achieve a diversified and integrated service system.

[Health information and social media: the doctor as a primary school teacher again]

While health information reaches an increasing proportion of the population through social media, there is no guarantee that the provided information is always either up-to-date or correct. Besides possessing know-how on the assessment of the quality of provided information, doctors are also obliged to offer health information wherever it is requested. It is important for doctors to be present in social media to evaluate and provide health information. This is associated with interesting ethical and judicial questions.

Hearing loss in persons with psychotic disorder--findings from a population-based survey

Hearing impairment is associated with psychotic symptoms, but has not been systematically studied in people with psychotic disorder. We used a population-based sample of 6654 persons aged 30+ to compare hearing, as measured by audiometry, in persons with schizophrenia, other non-affective psychosis and affective psychosis in the general population. The prevalence of hearing impairment did not differ in persons with psychotic disorder compared with the general population. Participants with schizophrenia and affective psychotic disorder had significantly more difficulties to hear in a noisy environment than the general population. Our results suggest that psychotic disorders are associated with minor hearing difficulties but not hearing impairment.

Prevalence and correlates of eating disorders among young adults in Finland

BACKGROUND

This study investigated the epidemiology of eating disorders in a population-based sample of young adults.

METHOD

A mental health questionnaire was sent to a nationally representative two-stage cluster sample of 1863 Finns aged 20-35 years. All screen-positives and a random sample of screen-negatives were invited to participate in a Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders (SCID-I) interview. Case records from all lifetime mental health treatments were also obtained and were used to complement the diagnostic assessment.

RESULTS

The lifetime prevalence of anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, eating disorder not otherwise specified and any eating disorder among women were 2.1%, 2.3%, 2.0% and 6.0%, respectively, while there was only one man with an eating disorder. Unlike other mental disorders, they are associated with high education. Of women diagnosed with lifetime eating disorder, 67.9% had at least one comorbid Axis I psychiatric disorder, most commonly depressive disorder. While 79.3% of women with lifetime eating disorder had had a treatment contact, only one third of persons with current eating disorder had a current treatment contact. Women whose eating disorder had remitted still experienced more psychological distress and had lower psychosocial functioning that women without lifetime Axis I disorders.

CONCLUSION

Eating disorders are the fourth largest group of mental disorders among young women. They tend to be comorbid, often remain untreated and are associated with residual symptoms after the remission of eating disorder symptoms.

Physicians' Ethics Forum: a Web-based ethics consultation service

To meet all physicians' needs for ethics consultation in Finland, a novel form of service, the Physicians' Ethics Forum, was founded in 2003. The Forum is a cost-efficient service based on electronic communication. In this paper, experiences throughout its first 6 years are described.

Attempted suicide in mental disorders in young adulthood

BACKGROUND

Nationwide general population study establishes the prevalence of suicide attempts in different mental disorders among young adults and their sociodemographic correlates. Current psychiatric symptoms are also examined.

METHODS

A random sample of 1,894 young Finnish adults aged 20-34 years were approached to participate in a questionnaire containing several screens for mental health interviews. All screen positives and random sample of screen negatives were invited to an SCID interview. Altogether 546 subjects participated in the interview. Diagnostic assessment and lifetime history of suicide attempts were based on all available systematically evaluated information from the questionnaire, the interview and/or case records.

RESULTS

The lifetime prevalence of suicide attempts was 5.6% in men and 6.9% in women. Both mental disorders and poor educational and occupational functioning were associated with lifetime suicide attempts. Lifetime history of suicide attempts was associated with current psychological distress, problems related to substance use and other psychiatric symptoms, even after taking current Axis I disorder into account. Suicide attempts were most common in persons with psychotic disorders (41%).

CONCLUSIONS

These results suggest that continued efforts are needed to outreach and treat effectively young adults with serious mental disorders. Young people who make a suicide attempt should be offered treatment. It seems also important to prevent psychosocial alienation of young people by providing them with adequate education and work possibilities.

Sex differences in cognition among persons with schizophrenia and healthy first-degree relatives

Previous research suggests differences between women and men in the clinical features of schizophrenia, but studies examining sex differences in neuropsychological functioning have reached inconsistent results. In the present study, sex differences in cognition and clinical features were investigated in population-based samples of participants with schizophrenia (n=218), their healthy first-degree relatives (n=438) and controls (n=123). Sex differences in illness features were small; nevertheless, women with schizophrenia had less negative symptoms and lived independently more often than men. The schizophrenia group had impairments in all studied neuropsychological domains, and the relatives were impaired in processing speed and set-shifting. In all groups, women performed better than men in processing speed, set-shifting and verbal episodic memory, whereas men outperformed women in visual working memory. The group-by-sex interaction was significant in two variables: women outperformed men in the relatives group in immediate verbal reproduction and in the use of semantic clustering as a learning strategy, while there was no sex difference in the schizophrenia group. In conclusion, sex differences in cognition are mostly similar in schizophrenia to those among controls, despite sex differences in illness features. The preservation of sex differences also in first-degree relatives supports the conclusion.

Epidemiology of suicide attempts among persons with psychotic disorder in the general population

OBJECTIVE

To establish the epidemiology of suicide attempts in persons with psychotic disorder identified from the general population and to investigate the associations of suicidal behavior with other clinical characteristics and with physical violence against other people.

METHOD

A random sample of 9922 Finnish persons aged 18 years or over was screened for psychotic disorder using multiple sources of information. All screen positives and random sample of screen negatives were invited to an SCID interview. Diagnostic assessment, lifetime history of suicide attempts and violence against others were based on all available systematically evaluated information from the questionnaire, interview and/or case records.

RESULTS

Of persons with a lifetime history of any primary or substance-induced psychotic disorder (n = 264), 34.5% (women: 34.1%, men: 34.9%) had a history of at least one suicide attempt. There were no suicide attempts among persons with delusional disorder, while the rate of suicide attempts was higher among persons with substance-induced psychotic disorders (48.8%) than in persons with other psychotic disorders 41.8%) (χ(2) = 4.4, d.f. = 1, P = 0.036). Suicide attempts were associated with younger age, comorbid substance use disorders, depressive symptoms, and physical violence against other people.

CONCLUSION

Suicide attempts are common in all psychotic disorders except for delusional disorder. They are particularly common in substance-induced psychotic disorder and in persons with comorbid substance use disorders. They are associated with severe depressive symptoms but not with the severity of psychotic symptoms. Suicidal behavior correlates with physical violence against other people.

Alcohol-induced psychotic disorder and delirium in the general population

BACKGROUND

Epidemiological data on alcohol-induced psychotic disorder and delirium (alcohol-induced psychotic syndrome, AIPS) are scarce.

AIMS

To investigate the epidemiology of AIPS, the risk factors for developing AIPS among people with alcohol dependence, and mortality associated with alcohol dependence with or without AIPS, in a sample drawn from the general population of Finland.

METHOD

A general population sample of 8028 persons were interviewed with the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and screened for psychotic disorders using multiple sources. Best-estimate diagnoses of psychotic disorders were made using the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis I Disorders and case notes. Data on hospital reatments and deaths were collected from national registers.

RESULTS

The lifetime prevalence was 0.5% for AIPS and was highest (1.8%) among men of working age. Younger age at onset of alcohol dependence, low socioeconomic status, father's mental health or alcohol problems and multiple hospital treatments were associated with increased risk of AIPS. Participants with a history of AIPS had considerable medical comorbidity, and 37% of them died during the 8-year follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol-induced psychotic disorder is a severe mental disorder with poor outcome.

Infertility, mental disorders and well-being--a nationwide survey

OBJECTIVE

Earlier studies suggest that infertility and mental health problems are related and that infertility is a different experience for women and men. The aim of this population-based study is to examine mental disorders, depressivity, psychological distress, perceived health and quality of life among women and men who have experienced infertility.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional nationwide Health 2000 Survey.

SETTING

Population-based.

POPULATION

A representative random sample of Finnish people aged 30-44 years (n = 2291).

METHODS

Outcomes were compared between those who had experienced infertility (n = 338) and the rest of the population. Age, marital status, education, income, body mass index, and smoking were controlled for using logistic and linear regressions.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Mental disorders (composite international diagnostic interview, CIDI), depressivity (Beck Depression Inventory, BDI), psychological distress (general health questionnaire, GHQ-12), perceived health, and subjective quality of life.

RESULTS

Approximately 20% of women and 9% of men reported having experienced infertility. Childless women with infertility experience had increased adjusted risks for dysthymia (OR 3.41, 95% CI; 1.01-11.5) and anxiety disorders (2.67, 1.00-7.12) compared to women who had not experienced infertility. Women with infertility experience but with a current child had an increased risk for panic disorder (2.58, 1.11-6.01). Childless men with infertility experience had a significantly poorer quality of life compared to men without infertility.

CONCLUSIONS

Infertility was associated with mental health, especially dysthymia and anxiety. The results differed by gender and the permanency of infertility. Gender-specific psychosocial support and follow-up for infertile people is warranted.

General health and quality-of-life measures in active, recent, and comorbid mental disorders: a population-based health 2000 study

AIMS

We studied the impact of comorbidity and recency in psychiatric disorders on psychological well-being, perceived health, and quality of life and compared their effect with the effect of a chronic medical condition, type 2 diabetes mellitus.

METHODS

Established instruments for psychological distress (12-item General Health Questionnaire [GHQ-12]), self-rated general health, and health-related quality of life (EQ-5D and 15D) were administered for the participants of the nationwide Finnish Health 2000 survey. The diagnoses of depressive, anxiety, and alcohol use disorders and their unique comorbid combinations were based on the Munich version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (M-CIDI).

RESULTS

People with comorbid anxiety and depressive disorders had the highest distress and lowest health and quality-of-life ratings on all scales. The effects of mental disorders on health-related quality of life and self-rated health were comparable to the effects of diabetes. Type 2 diabetes mellitus and alcohol use disorder were associated with minimal, although statistically significant, increase of psychological distress. Symptom recovery from an active depressive disorder associated with improved well-being on all measures, but residual ill-being was also remarkably common among the partly or fully recovered in all disorder categories.

CONCLUSIONS

Even in comparison with a chronic physical illness such as diabetes, comorbid psychiatric disorders have a high impact on psychological well-being, perceived health, and quality of life, when evaluated by simple, useful, and feasible self-rating scales. The scales used may be useful in monitoring the severity and course of psychiatric conditions. Recognizing and treating psychiatric comorbidity is important in improving the quality of life of psychiatric patients.

Antidepressant utilisation patterns and determinants of short-term and non-psychiatric use in the Finnish general adult population

BACKGROUND

The aim was to study utilisation patterns and determinants of antidepressant use in the general population >30 years, especially short-term use or use not related to known psychiatric morbidity.

METHODS

Participants from a cross-sectional population-based Finnish Health 2000 Study (2000--2001) were linked with the National Prescription Register and National Care Register for Health Care. Within a representative sample (N=7112) of the adult population (>30 years), 12-month DSM-IV depressive, anxiety, and alcohol use disorders were assessed with the M-CIDI. Utilisation patterns of antidepressants were categorised to short-term, intermittent and continuous use. Factors predicting short-term use or use not related to known psychiatric morbidity were investigated.

RESULTS

Of Finnish adults 7.1% had used antidepressants in 2000, of which two-thirds reported a physician-diagnosed mental disorder; a third (35%) had major depressive or anxiety disorder during the previous 12 months. In terms of utilisation pattern, 43% were long-term users, 32% intermittent users and 26% short-term users. Short-term use was related to care by a general practitioner and having no known mental disorder. A quarter of all users had no known psychiatric morbidity. This type of user was most common among the older age groups, and inversely related to being single, on disability pension and using mental health services.

LIMITATIONS

Not all psychiatric indications for antidepressant use could be explored.

CONCLUSIONS

Depression remains the main indication for antidepressant use. About a quarter of users had no known psychiatric indication and the indication remained unclear. Short-term and non-psychiatric use are more commonly prescribed for the elderly.