Medically assisted alcohol withdrawal (MAAW) is increasingly undertaken on acute adult psychiatric wards.

Comparison of the quality of MAAW between acute adult wards and specialist addictions units in mental health services.

Clinical audit conducted by the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health (POMH). Information on MAAW was collected from clinical records using a bespoke data collection tool.

Forty-five National Health Service (NHS) mental health trusts/healthcare organisations submitted data relating to the treatment of 908 patients undergoing MAAW on an acute adult ward or psychiatric intensive care unit (PICU) and 347 admitted to a specialist NHS addictions unit. MAAW had been overseen by an addiction specialist in 33 (4%) of the patients on an acute adult ward/PICU. A comprehensive alcohol history, measurement of breath alcohol, full screening for Wernicke's encephalopathy, use of parenteral thiamine, prescription of medications for relapse prevention (such as acamprosate) and referral for specialist continuing care of alcohol-related problems following discharge were all more commonly documented when care was provided on a specialist unit or when there was specialist addictions management on an acute ward.

The findings suggest that the quality of care provided for medically assisted withdrawal from alcohol, including the use of evidence-based interventions, is better when clinicians with specialist addictions training are involved. This has implications for future quality improvement in the provision of MAAW in acute adult mental health settings.

Evidence suggests that cognitive subtypes exist in schizophrenia that may reflect different neurobiological trajectories. We aimed to identify whether IQ-derived cognitive subtypes are present in early-phase schizophrenia-spectrum disorder and examine their relationship with brain structure and markers of neuroinflammation.

161 patients with recent-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorder (<5 years) were recruited. Estimated premorbid and current IQ were calculated using the Wechsler Test of Adult Reading and a 4-subtest WAIS-III. Cognitive subtypes were identified with k-means clustering. Freesurfer was used to analyse 3.0 T MRI. Blood samples were analysed for hs-CRP, IL-1RA, IL-6 and TNF-α.

Three subtypes were identified indicating preserved (PIQ), deteriorated (DIQ) and compromised (CIQ) IQ. Absolute total brain volume was significantly smaller in CIQ compared to PIQ and DIQ, and intracranial volume was smaller in CIQ than PIQ (F(2, 124) = 6.407, p = 0.002) indicative of premorbid smaller brain size in the CIQ group. CIQ had higher levels of hs-CRP than PIQ (F(2, 131) = 5.01, p = 0.008). PIQ showed differentially impaired processing speed and verbal learning compared to IQ-matched healthy controls.

The findings add validity of a neurodevelopmental subtype of schizophrenia identified by comparing estimated premorbid and current IQ and characterised by smaller premorbid brain volume and higher measures of low-grade inflammation (CRP).

A supply disruption alert in 2020, now rescinded, notified UK prescribers of the planned discontinuation of Priadel® (lithium carbonate) tablets. This service evaluation explored lithium dose and plasma levels before and after the switching of lithium brands, in order to determine the interchangeability of different brands of lithium from a pharmacokinetic perspective.

Data on the treatment of 37 patients switched from Priadel® tablets were analysed. Switching to Camcolit® controlled-release tablets at the same dose did not result in meaningful differences in plasma lithium levels. Dose adjustment and known or suspected poor medication adherence were associated with greater variability in plasma lithium levels on switching brands.

For comparable pre- and post-switch doses in adherent patients, the most common brands of lithium carbonate appear to produce similar plasma lithium levels. British National Formulary guidance relating to switching lithium brands may be unnecessarily complex.

We conducted a secondary analysis of data from a Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health audit to assess the quality of requests from intellectual disability services to primary care for repeat prescriptions of antipsychotic medication.

Forty-six National Health Service Trusts submitted treatment data on 977 adults with intellectual disability, receiving antipsychotic medication for more than a year, for whom prescribing responsibility had been transferred to primary care. Therapeutic effects had been monitored in the past 6 months in 80% of cases with a documented communication indicating which service was responsible for this and 72% of those with no such communication. The respective proportions were 69% and 42% for side-effect monitoring, and 79% and 30% for considering reducing/stopping antipsychotic medication.

Where continuing antipsychotic medication is prescribed in primary care for people with intellectual disability, lack of guidance from secondary care regarding responsibilities for monitoring its effectiveness may be associated with inadequate review.

It is uncertain whether antipsychotic long-acting injection (LAI) medication in schizophrenia is associated with better clinical outcomes than oral preparations.

To examine the impact of prior treatment delivery route on treatment outcomes and whether any differences are moderated by adherence.

Analysis of data from two pragmatic 1-year clinical trials in which patients with schizophrenia were randomised to either an oral first-generation antipsychotic (FGA), or a non-clozapine second-generation antipsychotic (SGA, CUtLASS 1 study), or a non-clozapine SGA or clozapine (CUtLASS 2 study).

Across both trials, 43% (n = 155) of participants were prescribed an FGA-LAI before randomisation. At 1-year follow-up they showed less improvement in quality of life, symptoms and global functioning than those randomised from oral medication. This difference was confined to patients rated as less than consistently adherent pre-randomisation. The relatively poor improvement in the patients prescribed an LAI pre-randomisation was ameliorated if they had been randomised to clozapine rather than another SGA. There was no advantage to being randomly assigned from an LAI at baseline to a non-clozapine oral SGA rather than an oral FGA.

A switch at randomisation from an LAI to an oral antipsychotic was associated with poorer clinical and functional outcomes at 1-year follow-up compared with switching from one oral antipsychotic to another. This effect appears to be moderated by adherence, and may not extend to switching to clozapine. This has implications for clinical trial design: the drug from which a participant is randomised may have a greater effect than the drug to which they are randomised.

Up to a quarter of people in the UK with a diagnosis of dementia are prescribed an antipsychotic in any year. The potential risks of such treatment are becoming clearer, but the benefits remain uncertain. Concern about the frequency and quality of such prescribing was expressed in the National Dementia Strategy for England in 2009.

To provide an estimate of the prevalence of antipsychotic use for dementia in secondary mental health services in the UK and to collect data relevant to quality improvement initiatives for such prescribing practice.

In the context of a UK quality improvement programme, relevant clinical audit data were collected for patients with dementia under the care of specialist older people's mental health services.

Fifty-four mental health National Health Service (NHS) trusts submitted data on 10 199 patients. Of those patients without comorbid psychotic illness, 1620 (16%) were prescribed an antipsychotic; the common clinical indications for such medication were agitation, psychotic symptoms, aggression and distress. Multivariable regression found younger age, care home or in-patient setting, vascular or Parkinson's disease dementia and greater severity of dementia to be all significantly associated with being prescribed antipsychotic medication. Of the 1001 (62%) patients prescribed treatment for more than 6 months, only three-quarters had a documented review of therapeutic response in the previous 6 months.

The data reveal areas of relatively good current practice, including consideration of alternatives to antipsychotic medication and clear documentation of target symptoms. They also suggest areas for improvement, such as the frequency and quality of review of long-term medication. Strategies to reduce antipsychotic use should take account of the demographic and clinical variables predicting increased likelihood of antipsychotic prescription.

Second-generation antipsychotics have been thought to cause fewer extrapyramidal side-effects (EPS) than first-generation antipsychotics, but recent pragmatic trials have indicated equivalence.

To determine whether second-generation antipsychotics had better outcomes in terms of EPS than first-generation drugs.

We conducted an intention-to-treat, secondary analysis of data from an earlier randomised controlled trial (n = 227). A clinically significant difference was defined as double or half the symptoms in groups prescribed first- v. second-generation antipsychotics, represented by odds ratios greater than 2.0 (indicating advantage for first-generation drugs) or less than 0.5 (indicating advantage for the newer drugs). We also examined EPS in terms of symptoms emergent at 12 weeks and 52 weeks, and symptoms that had resolved at these time points.

At baseline those randomised to the first-generation antipsychotic group (n = 118) had similar EPS to the second-generation group (n = 109). Indications of resolved Parkinsonism (OR = 0.5) and akathisia (OR = 0.4) and increased tardive dyskinesia (OR = 2.2) in the second-generation drug group at 12 weeks were not statistically significant and the effects were not present by 52 weeks. Patients in the second-generation group were dramatically (30-fold) less likely to be prescribed adjunctive anticholinergic medication, despite equivalence in terms of EPS.

The expected improvement in EPS profiles for participants randomised to second-generation drugs was not found; the prognosis over 1 year of those in the first-generation arm was no worse in these terms. The place of careful prescription of first-generation drugs in contemporary practice remains to be defined, potentially improving clinical effectiveness and avoiding life-shortening metabolic disturbances in some patients currently treated with the narrow range of second-generation antipsychotics used in routine practice. This has educational implications because a generation of psychiatrists now has little or no experience with first-generation antipsychotic prescription.

Clinical studies of antipsychotic medication are a primary source of data on the nature of, and relative liability for, adverse effects, relevant to prescribing decisions in clinical practice.

To identify how safety and tolerability data were collected and reported in recent clinical studies of antipsychotics.

A survey was conducted of all 167 eligible studies published between 2002 and 2007 on the Cochrane Schizophrenia Group register.

Extrapyramidal side-effects (EPS) and weight gain were most frequently assessed. A minority of reports addressed metabolic abnormalities, aversive subjective experiences and sexual dysfunction. Published rating scales were frequently used to evaluate EPS, but systematic methods were rarely applied to other treatment-emergent problems. The definition of individual adverse effects and the manner of reporting were inconsistent.

The way in which safety and tolerability data are collected and reported in clinical studies does not allow for fair and meaningful comparison of the relative risk profiles of individual antipsychotic drugs.

Data from the USA, Australia and Europe suggest that the proportion of patients with schizophrenia prescribed an antipsychotic long-acting injection (LAI) varies from around a quarter to a third. Use of LAIs has been associated with male gender and younger age.

To characterise the use of LAIs in people with schizophrenia in three clinical settings in the UK.

The study used audit data from quality improvement programmes conducted by the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health.

Long-acting injections were found to be prescribed for between a quarter and a third of patients, depending on the clinical setting. Flupentixol, risperidone and zuclopenthixol were most commonly prescribed and were combined with an oral antipsychotic in half of cases, frequently constituting high-dose prescribing. The use of LAIs was not consistently associated with age, gender or ethnicity.

Antipsychotic LAIs are commonly prescribed. We did not replicate previous findings with respect to demographic variables associated with their use.

It is unclear if research findings support clinical opinion that cannabis use leads to worse outcomes in people with psychosis, or whether this impression is confounded by other factors.

To systematically review the evidence pertaining to whether cannabis affects outcome of psychotic disorders.

We searched 10 relevant databases (to November 2006), reference lists of included studies and contacted experts. We included 13 longitudinal studies from 15 303 references. Data extraction and quality assessment were conducted independently and in duplicate.

Cannabis use was consistently associated with increased relapse and non-adherence. Associations with other outcome measures were more disparate. Few studies adjusted for baseline illness severity, and most made no adjustment for alcohol, or other potentially important confounders. Adjusting for even a few confounders often resulted in substantial attenuation of results.

Confidence that most associations reported were specifically due to cannabis is low. Despite clinical opinion, it remains important to establish whether cannabis is harmful, what outcomes are particularly susceptible, and how such effects are mediated. Studies to examine this further are eminently feasible.

In first-episode schizophrenia, longer duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) predicts poorer outcomes.

To address whether the relationship between DUP and outcome is a direct causal one or the result of association between symptoms and/or cognitive functioning and social functioning at the same time point.

Symptoms, social function and cognitive function were assessed in 98 patients with first-episode schizphrenia at presentation and 1 year later.

There was no significant clinical difference between participants with short and long DUP at presentation. Linear regression analyses revealed that longer DUP significantly predicted more severe positive and negative symptoms and poorer social function at 1 year, independent of scores at presentation. Path analyses revealed independent direct relationships between DUP and social function, core negative symptoms and positive symptoms. There was no significant association between DUP and cognition.

Longer DUP predicts poor social function independently of symptoms. The findings underline the importance of taking account of the phenomenological overlap between measures of negative symptoms and social function when investigating the effects of DUP.

Clinical guidelines recommend the routine use of a single antipsychotic drug in a standard dose, but prescriptions for high-dose and combined antipsychotics are common in clinical practice.

To evaluate the effectiveness of a quality improvement programme in reducing the prevalence of high-dose and combined antipsychotic prescribing in acute adult in-patient wards in the UK.

Baseline audit was followed by feedback of benchmarked data and delivery of a range of bespoke change interventions, and then by a further audit 1 year later.

Thirty-two services participated, submitting data for 3942 patients at baseline and 3271 patients at the 1-year audit. There was little change in the prevalence of high-dose (baseline 36%; re-audit 34%) or combined antipsychotic prescribing (baseline 43%; re-audit 39%). As required (‘p.r.n.’) prescriptions were the principal cause of both high-dose and combined antipsychotic prescribing on both occasions.

The quality improvement programme did not have a demonstrable impact on prescribing practice in the majority of services. Future efforts to align practice with clinical guidelines need to specifically target the culture and practice of p.r.n. prescribing.