Important transformations in psychiatric healthcare (HC) delivery have been implemented in Latin America during the beginning of 21st century. However, information on current service uses patterns is scant, obstructing the estimates and proper planning of service needs for general population. The current investigation aims to describe patterns and estimates predictors of 12-month HC use by individuals with mental disorders in São Paulo metropolitan area, Brazil.

Data are from São Paulo Mental Health Survey, a cross-sectional multistage representative study. Participants were face-to-face interviewed in their household, using a structured diagnostic interview, the World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. A total of 5037 respondents, non-institutionalised, aged 18 years and older were interviewed. The response rate was 81.3%. We determined the percentages of individuals with 12-month DSM-IV anxiety, mood and substance disorders that received treatment in the 12 months prior to assessment in main service sectors (specialty mental health, general medicine, human services (HS), and complementary and alternative medicine). The number of visits and percentage of individuals who received treatment at minimally adequacy also was estimated. Multilevel regression controlled contextual variables that influenced the use of service and treatment adequacy.

Only 10.1% of respondents used some HC service in the 12 months prior to assessment for their psychiatric problems, including 3.9% of them being treated either by a psychiatrist, 3.5% by a non-psychiatrist mental health specialist, 3.3% by a general medical (GM) provider, 1.5% by a HS provider and 1.4% by a complementary and alternative medical provider. In general, those participants who received service in the mental health specialty sector reported more visits than those in the GM sector (median 3.9 v. 1.5 visits). The cases seen in specialty sector outnumber those visiting GM treatment in terms of minimally adequate treatment (54.6 v. 23.2%). The likelihood of receiving treatment was significantly greater among individuals diagnosed with any anxiety and mood disorder, presenting more severe disorders, and with possession of HC insurance.

The great majority of individuals with an active mental disorder in São Paulo were either untreated or insufficiently treated. Awareness and training programmes to GM professionals are advocated to improve recognition, care take and referral to specialty care when needed. Proper integration among HC sectors is recommended.

School-based psychological interventions encompass: universal interventions targeting youth in the general population; and indicated interventions targeting youth with subthreshold depression. This study aimed to: (1) examine the population cost-effectiveness of delivering universal and indicated prevention interventions to youth in the population aged 11–17 years via primary and secondary schools in Australia; and (2) compare the comparative cost-effectiveness of delivering these interventions using face-to-face and internet-based delivery mechanisms.

We reviewed literature on the prevention of depression to identify all interventions targeting youth that would be suitable for implementation in Australia and had evidence of efficacy to support analysis. From this, we found evidence of effectiveness for the following intervention types: universal prevention involving group-based psychological interventions delivered to all participating school students; and indicated prevention involving group-based psychological interventions delivered to students with subthreshold depression. We constructed a Markov model to assess the cost-effectiveness of delivering universal and indicated interventions in the population relative to a ‘no intervention’ comparator over a 10-year time horizon. A disease model was used to simulate epidemiological transitions between three health states (i.e., healthy, diseased and dead). Intervention effect sizes were based on meta-analyses of randomised control trial data identified in the aforementioned review; while health benefits were measured as Disability-adjusted Life Years (DALYs) averted attributable to reductions in depression incidence. Net costs of delivering interventions were calculated using relevant Australian data. Uncertainty and sensitivity analyses were conducted to test model assumptions. Incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) were measured in 2013 Australian dollars per DALY averted; with costs and benefits discounted at 3%.

Universal and indicated psychological interventions delivered through face-to-face modalities had ICERs below a threshold of $50 000 per DALY averted. That is, $7350 per DALY averted (95% uncertainty interval (UI): dominates – 23 070) for universal prevention, and $19 550 per DALY averted (95% UI: 3081–56 713) for indicated prevention. Baseline ICERs were generally robust to changes in model assumptions. We conducted a sensitivity analysis which found that internet-delivered prevention interventions were highly cost-effective when assuming intervention effect sizes of 100 and 50% relative to effect sizes observed for face-to-face delivered interventions. These results should, however, be interpreted with caution due to the paucity of data.

School-based psychological interventions appear to be cost-effective. However, realising efficiency gains in the population is ultimately dependent on ensuring successful system-level implementation.

Provision and need for mental health services among military personnel are a major concern across nations. Two recent comparisons suggest higher rates of mental disorders in US and UK military personnel compared with civilians. However, these findings may not apply to other nations. Previous studies have focused on the overall effects of military service rather than the separate effects of military service and deployment. This study compared German military personnel with and without a history of deployment to sociodemographically matched civilians regarding prevalence and severity of 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders.

1439 deployed soldiers (DS), 779 never deployed soldiers (NS) and 1023 civilians were assessed with an adapted version of the Munich Composite International Diagnostic interview across the same timeframe. Data were weighted using propensity score methodology to assure comparability of the three samples.

Compared with adjusted civilians, the prevalence of any 12-month disorder was lower in NS (OR: 0.7, 95% CI: 0.5–0.99) and did not differ in DS. Significant differences between military personnel and civilians regarding prevalence and severity of individual diagnoses were only apparent for alcohol (DS: OR: 0.3, 95% CI: 0.1–0.6; NS: OR: 0.2, 95% CI: 0.1–0.6) and nicotine dependence (DS: OR: 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3–0.6; NS: OR: 0.5, 95% CI: 0.3–0.7) with lower values in both military samples. Elevated rates of panic/agoraphobia (OR: 2.7, 95% CI: 1.4–5.3) and posttraumatic stress disorder (OR: 3.2, 95% CI: 1.3–8.0) were observed in DS with high combat exposure compared with civilians.

Rates and severity of mental disorders in the German military are comparable with civilians for internalising and lower for substance use disorders. A higher risk of some disorders is reduced to DS with high combat exposure. This finding has implications for mental health service provision and the need for targeted interventions. Differences to previous US and UK studies that suggest an overall higher prevalence in military personnel might result from divergent study methods, deployment characteristics, military structures and occupational factors. Some of these factors might yield valuable targets to improve military mental health.

The primary aim of this study is to analyse the conformance of usual care patterns for persons with schizophrenia to treatment guidelines in three Italian Departments of Mental Health (DMHs). The secondary aim is to examine possible organisational and structural reasons accounting for variations among DMHs.

Within the framework of the Evaluation of Treatment Appropriateness in Schizophrenia (ETAS) project, 20 consensus quality of care indicators were developed. Ten concerned pharmacological treatment and ten encompassed general care and psychosocial rehabilitation interventions. Indicators were calculated using data from a stratified random sample of 458 patients treated at three DMHs located in North-Eastern, North-Western and Southern Italy. Patients’ data were collected by combining information from medical charts and from a survey carried out by the health care professionals in charge of the patients. Data on the structural and organisational characteristics of the DMHs were retrieved from administrative databases. For each indicator, the number and percentage of appropriate interventions with and without moderators were calculated. Appropriateness was defined as the percentage of eligible patients receiving an intervention conformant with guidelines. Moderators, i.e., reasons justifying a discrepancy between the interventions actually provided and that recommended by guidelines were recorded. Indicators based on a sufficient number of eligible patients were further explored in a statistical analysis to compare the performance of the DMHs.

In the overall sample, the percentage of inappropriate interventions ranged from 11.1 to 59.3% for non-pharmacological interventions and from 5.9 to 66.8% for pharmacological interventions. Comparisons among DMHs revealed significant variability in appropriateness for the indicators ‘prevention and monitoring of metabolic effects’, ‘psychiatric visits’, ‘psychosocial rehabilitation’, ‘family involvement’ and ‘work’. After adjusting the patient's gender, age and functioning, only the indicators ‘Prevention and monitoring of metabolic effects’, ‘psychiatric visits’ and ‘work’ continued to differ significantly among DMHs. The percentage of patients receiving appropriate integrated care (at least one appropriate non-pharmacological intervention and one pharmacological intervention) was significantly different among the three DMHs and lower than expected.

Our results underscore discrepancies among Italian DMHs in indicators that explore key aspects of care of patients with schizophrenia. The use of quality indicators and improved guideline adherence can address suboptimal clinical outcomes, and has the potential to reduce practice variations and narrow the gap between optimal and routine care.

Few studies have compared time trends for the incidence of psychosis. To date, the results have been inconsistent, showing a decline, an increase or no significant change. As far as we know, no studies explored changes in prevalence of early risk factors. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in early risk factors and cumulative incidences of psychosis by type of psychosis in two comparable birth cohorts.

The Northern Finland Birth cohorts (NFBCs) 1966 (N = 12 058) and 1986 (N = 9432) are prospective general population-based cohorts with the children followed since mother's mid-pregnancy. The data for psychoses, i.e. schizophrenia (narrow, spectrum), bipolar disorder with psychotic features, major depressive episode with psychotic features, brief psychosis and other psychoses (ICD 8–10) were collected from nationwide registers including both inpatients and outpatients. The data on early risk factors including sex and place of birth of the offspring, parental age and psychosis, maternal education at birth were prospectively collected from the population registers. The follow-up reached until the age of 27 years.

An increase in the cumulative incidence of all psychoses was seen (1.01% in NFBC 1966 v. 1.90% in NFBC 1986; p < 0.001), which was due to an increase in diagnosed affective and other psychoses. Earlier onset of cases and relatively more psychoses in women were observed in the NFBC 1986. Changes in prevalence of potential early risk factors were identified, but only parental psychosis was a significant predictor in both cohorts (hazard ratios ≥3.0; 95% CI 1.86–4.88). The difference in psychosis incidence was not dependent on changes in prevalence of studied early risk factors.

Surprisingly, increase in the cumulative incidence of psychosis and also changes in the types of psychoses were found between two birth cohorts 20 years apart. The observed differences could be due to real changes in incidence or they can be attributable to changes in diagnostic practices, or to early psychosis detection and treatment.

Clozapine is the most effective medication for treatment refractory schizophrenia. However, descriptions of the mental health and comorbidity profile and care experiences of people on clozapine in routine clinical settings are scarce. Using data from the 2010 Australian Survey of High Impact Psychosis, we aimed to examine the proportion of people using clozapine, and to compare clozapine users with other antipsychotic users on demographic, mental health, adverse drug reaction, polypharmacy and treatment satisfaction variables.

Data describing 1049 people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, who reported taking any antipsychotic medication in the previous 4 weeks, were drawn from a representative Australian survey of people with psychotic disorders in contact with mental health services in the previous 12 months. We compared participants taking clozapine (n = 257, 22.4%) with those taking other antipsychotic medications, on a range of demographic, clinical and treatment-related indicators.

One quarter of participants were on clozapine. Of participants with a chronic course of illness, only one third were on clozapine. After adjusting for diagnosis and illness chronicity, participants taking clozapine had significantly lower odds of current alcohol, cannabis and other drug use despite similar lifetime odds. Metabolic syndrome and diabetes were more common among people taking clozapine; chronic pain was less common. Psychotropic polypharmacy did not differ between groups.

Consistent with international evidence of clozapine underutilisation, a large number of participants with chronic illness and high symptom burden were not taking clozapine. The lower probabilities of current substance use and chronic pain among clozapine users warrant further study.