Assessment of patient satisfaction with psychiatric care. Development and clinical evaluation of a brief consumer satisfaction rating scale (UKU-ConSat).

Quality management and quality control of health services has become increasingly important. Central to the concept of quality of care is the patient's (the health care consumer's) own view of the care provided and the treatment outcome. UKU (Udvalg for Kliniske Undersøgelser; that is, Committee for Clinical Trials), a working group within the Scandinavian Society for Psychopharmacology (SSP), has designed a brief consumer satisfaction rating scale, the UKU-ConSat.

Patient-rated versus clinician-rated side effects of drug treatment in schizophrenia. Clinical validation of a self-rating version of the UKU Side Effect Rating Scale (UKU-SERS-Pat).

A self-rating version of the UKU Side Effect Rating Scale has been developed. The present study examines the agreement between patients' self-assessment of side effects and the attending clinicians' ratings. The patient sample consisted of 63 patients with schizophrenia under maintenance treatment with risperidone, clozapine or classical antipsychotics.

A double-blind study comparing the efficacy and tolerability of mirtazapine and doxepin in patients with major depression.

One hundred and sixty-three patients with major depression were randomly assigned to treatment with mirtazapine or doxepin for 6 weeks in a double-blind clinical trial. Initially, patients received mirtazapine 20 mg/day or doxepin 75 mg/day; dosages were then titrated up to a maximum of 60 mg/day and 300 mg/day, respectively. Both drugs produced considerable improvement in depressive symptoms with no statistically significant differences between the two patient groups.

Remoxipride and haloperidol in schizophrenia: a double-blind multicentre study.

Ninety-two patients with schizophrenia were included in a double-blind multicentre parallel-group trial comparing remoxipride and haloperidol. The mean daily dose during the last week of treatment was 316 mg (range, 150-600 mg) in the remoxipride group and 8.7 mg (range, 5-20 mg) in the haloperidol group.

Zuclopenthixol acetate in Viscoleo--a new drug formulation. An open Nordic multicentre study of zuclopenthixol acetate in Viscoleo in patients with acute psychoses including mania and exacerbation of chronic psychoses.

Eighty-three acutely disturbed, psychotic patients were included in an open multicentre study. The aim of the study was to evaluate the clinical effect of zuclopenthixol acetate in Viscoleo (CPT-A). Each patient received from one to four intramuscular injections of CPT-A during the 6-day study period.

Flupenthixol decanoate in recurrent manic-depressive illness. A comparison with lithium.

The hypothesis that flupenthixol decanoate may serve as an alternative to prophylactically administered lithium in recurrent manic-depressive illness, bipolar and unipolar type, was tested in two groups of patients. In Group I the patients were allocated randomly to maintenance treatment with either lithium or flupenthixol decanoate. The patients in Group II had previously been given lithium and were switched to flupenthixol decanoate because of unsatisfactory prophylactic effect of lithium, doubtful tablet compliance, troublesome side effects, or fear of later harmful effects.

Effect of anticonvulsant and antidepressant drugs on iodothyronines in serum.

Serum iodothyronine concentrations were measured in patients on long-term therapy with one or two anticonvulsant drugs. Diphenylhydantoin (DPH) and carbamazepine (CBZ) reduced the serum levels of thyroxine (T4) free T4 index, reverse triiodothyronine (rT3) and 3,3'-diiodothyronine (3,3'-T2), whereas the depressant effect on the serum levels of triiodothyronine (T3) and free T3 index was small but statistically significant. In patients administered DPH and phenobarbital (PB) or CBZ and primidone (PD) the serum iodothyronine levels were also depressed, except for normal T3 and free T3 index.

Clopenthixol decanoate and perphenazine enanthate in schizophrenic patients. A double-blind Nordic multicentre trial.

The clinical properties of clopenthixol decanoate has been investigated versus perphenazine enanthate in a double-blind clinical multicentre trial including 14 psychiatric hospitals in Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Test treatment was initiated in 172 chronic schizophrenic patients and the planned 6 months test period was completed by 57 patients receiving clopenthixol decanoate and 48 receiving perphenazine enanthate. The therapeutic effect was assessed by means of CGI, BPRS, and NOSIE-30 and was found significant with both test drugs.

Decreased uptake of 5-hydroxytryptamine in blood platelets from patients with endogenous depression.

5-Hydroxytryptamine (5-HT) uptake was studied by using blood platelets from 13 patients with endogenous depression (Hamilton rating scale 33 +/- 7) and 13 healthy volunteers. An improved method with a short incubation time and low substrate concentration was used, and the incubation was performed in Krebs-Henseleit buffer (pH 7.4) at 37 degrees C.

Symptom reduction in depression after treatment with L-tryptophan or imipramine. Item analysis of Hamilton rating scale for depression.

Thirty-eight in-patients with endogenous- and 20 in-patients with non-endogenous depression, took part in a multi-centre 3-week double-blind trial where patients were randomly allocated to treatment with either 6 g L-tryptophan or 150 mg imipramine daily. Item analysis of Hamilton ratings, before the investigation and weekly during the trial period demonstrated few statistically different mean scores on individual items between the two treatment groups. After 3 weeks' treatment a statistically significant item mean reduction on the 0.