2001-2021 Comparative Persistence of Oral Antipsychotics in Patients Initiating Treatment: Superiority of Clozapine in Time-to-Treatment Discontinuation.

Background: Continuous antipsychotic (AP) therapy is crucial for managing psychotic disorders, and its early interruption reflects the drug's failure. Real-world epidemiological research is essential for confirming experimental data and generating new research hypotheses.

Methods: The persistence of oral APs in a large population sample from 2000 to 2021 was analyzed by comparing AP prescriptions over this period across four Italian provinces, using dispensing data linked via a record-linkage procedure among regional healthcare utilization databases.

Mortality during the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic: A Comparative Analysis between Lombardy in Italy and Israel.

This retrospective study contrasts the impact of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in Lombardy (Italy) and Israel, focusing on mortality, healthcare response, public health measures, and demographics. We analyzed SARS-CoV-2 data from Lombardy and Israel covering four viral waves. Data included infection rates, hospitalizations, and mortality.

The transition towards community-based mental health care in the European Union: Current realities and prospects.

The shift of mental health care from mental institutions to community-based services has been implemented differentially throughout the EU. However, because a comprehensive overview of the current mental health provision in member states is lacking, it is challenging to compare services across nations. This study investigates the extent of implementation of community-based mental health services within the EU using data collected from the WHO Mental Health Atlas.

Association of Antipsychotic Polypharmacy and Two-Year All-Cause Mortality: A Population-Based Cohort Study of 33,221 Italian Continuous Users.

Differences in survival between patients treated with antipsychotic monotherapy vs. polytherapy are debated. This study aimed to examine the association of antipsychotic polytherapy with 2-year all-cause mortality in a population-based cohort.

Failure to reduce benzodiazepine prescriptions through the implementation of a psychological intervention for insomnia in an Italian mental health service.

Purpose: Despite the evidence of higher effectiveness of psychological interventions for insomnia compared to pharmacological ones, drug prescriptions for insomnia remain frequent. This study has assessed patterns of prescriptions of BZDs for insomnia before and after the delivery of a training in psychological interventions to professionals working in the services of a Department of Mental Health in northern Italy.

Methods: The intervention consisted in two training sessions about psychological interventions for insomnia delivered to professionals of the participating services.

Development and validation of the Medical Attitudes Towards Deprescribing Questionnaire.

Polypharmacy and inappropriate prescriptions in the elderly are widely discussed themes in scientific literature. Although more and more studies showed the safety and feasibility of deprescribing strategies, these are not implemented in clinical practice. In order to measure the attitudes of Italian doctors towards deprescribing and address their awareness, experiences, difficulties in applying these strategies and potential suggestions, we aimed to develop and validate a questionnaire, the Medical Attitudes Towards Deprescribing Questionnaire (MATD-Q).

Allocation of Users of Mental Health Services to Needs-Based Care Clusters: An Italian Pilot Study.

In Italy, despite strong community-based mental health services, needs assessment is unsatisfactory. Using the Mental Health Clustering Tool (MHCT) we adopted a multidimensional and non-diagnosis dependent approach to assign mental health services users with similar needs to groups corresponding to resources required for effective care. We tested the MHCT in nine Departments of Mental Health in four Italian regions.

Assessing the quality of the care offer for people with personality disorders in Italy: the QUADIM project. A multicentre research based on the database of use of Mental Health services.

Background: Italy can be viewed as a laboratory to assess the quality of mental healthcare delivered in a community-oriented system, especially for severe mental disorders, such as personality disorders. Although initiatives based on clinical indicators for assessing the quality of mental healthcare have been developed by transnational-organisations, there is still no widespread practice of measuring the quality of care pathways delivered to patients with severe mental disorders in a community-oriented system, especially using administrative healthcare databases. The aim of the study is to evaluate the quality of care delivered to patients with personality disorders taken-in-care by mental health services of four Italian regions (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Sicily).

Using big data and Population Health Management to assess care and costs for patients with severe mental disorders and move toward a value-based payment system.

Background: Mental health (MH) care often exhibits uneven quality and poor coordination of physical and MH needs, especially for patients with severe mental disorders. This study tests a Population Health Management (PHM) approach to identify patients with severe mental disorders using administrative health databases in Italy and evaluate, manage and monitor care pathways and costs. A second objective explores the feasibility of changing the payment system from fee-for-service to a value-based system (e.

Post-recovery impact of the second and third SARS-CoV-2 infection waves on healthcare resource utilization in Lombardy, Italy.

The administrative claims database of the Italian region Lombardy, the first in Europe to be hit by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, was employed to evaluate the impact on healthcare resource utilization following recovery from the second (mainly alpha-related variant) and third (delta-related) infection waves. 317,164 individuals recovered from the infection and became negative after the second wave, 271,180 after the third. Of them, 1571 (0.

Two years of SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and COVID-19 in Lombardy, Italy.

Lombardy, the largest and most densely populated Italian region, was severely hit in February 2020 by the first pandemic wave of SARS-CoV-2 and associated COVID-19. Since then, additional infection waves spread in the region. The aim of this study was to compare the first with the subsequent waves using the administrative database of the Lombardy Welfare directorate.

The quality of mental health care for people with bipolar disorders in the Italian mental health system: the QUADIM project.

Background: The assessment of the quality of care pathways delivered to people with severe mental disorders in a community-based system remains uncommon, especially using healthcare utilization databases. The aim of the study was to evaluate the quality of care provided to people with bipolar disorders taken-in-care by mental health services of four Italian areas (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, province of Palermo).

Methods: Thirty-six quality indicators were implemented to assess quality of mental health care for patients with bipolar disorders, according to three dimensions (accessibility and appropriateness, continuity, and safety).

Assessment and Monitoring of the Quality of Clinical Pathways in Patients with Depressive Disorders: Results from a Multiregional Italian Investigation on Mental Health Care Quality (the QUADIM Project).

Ensuring adequate quality of care to patients with severe mental disorders remains a challenge. The implementation of clinical indicators aimed at assessing the quality of health care pathways delivered is crucial for the improvement of mental health services (MHS). This study aims to evaluate the quality of care delivered to patients who are taken-into-care with depressive disorders by MHS.

Post-COVID condition: dispensation of drugs and diagnostic tests as proxies of healthcare impact.

With the goal to increase knowledge on the healthcare impact of the post-COVID-19 condition we exploited the administrative claims database of Lombardy, the largest Italian region and the first after China to be heavily hit by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in February-May 2020. We chose to employ the dispensation of drugs and diagnostic tests as proxies of the impact of the post-COVID condition in 46,574 cases who recovered from COVID-19 and were negative at PCR testing within June 20, 2020. Data were obtained throughout the 18-month post-negativization period until December 2021 and results on the use of drugs and diagnostic tests were compared with those accrued in the same cases during the pre-COVID period in July-December 2019.

Including mental health care in a model of European health system.

The management of a health system is a matter of economics and business administration because of the costs induced by goods and services delivered. Economics teaches us that the positive effects induced by competition in free markets cannot be expected in health care, which is a classic example of market failure from both demand and supply sides. The most sensible key concepts to refer for managing a health system are funding and provision.

From contact coverage to effective coverage of community care for patients with severe mental disorders: A real-world investigation from Italy.

Objectives: To measure the gap between contact and effective coverage of mental healthcare (MHC).

Materials And Methods: 45,761 newly referred cases of depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and personality disorder from four Italian regions were included. A variant of the self-controlled case series method was adopted to estimate the incidence rate ratio (IRR) for the relationship between exposure (i.

Canned Fish Consumption and Upper Digestive Tract Cancers.

Canned fish is a widely consumed and affordable food whose effect on cancer risk has been little investigated. We studied its effect on risk of upper digestive tract cancers using data from a network of hospital-based case-control studies from Northern Italy providing information about canned fish consumption as a separate item and including a total of 946 patients with oral cavity and pharynx cancer, 304 patients with esophageal cancer, 230 patients with gastric cancer and 3273 controls. Twenty-three percent of patients with cancer of the oral cavity or pharynx and 26% of those with cancer of the stomach consumed ≥1 serving per week of canned fish, compared to 40% and 49% of the respective control group.

Willingness to share contacts in case of COVID-19 positivity-predictors of collaboration resistance in a nation-wide Italian survey.

Background: The unwillingness to share contacts is one of the least explored aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we report the factors associated with resistance to collaborate on contact tracing, based on the results of a nation-wide survey conducted in Italy in January-March 2021.

Methods And Findings: The repeated cross-sectional on-line survey was conducted among 7,513 respondents (mean age 45.

Inverse Association between Canned Fish Consumption and Colorectal Cancer Risk: Analysis of Two Large Case-Control Studies.

Fish is among the foods exerting favourable effects on colorectal cancer (CRC), but the possible role of canned fish has been insufficiently investigated. We aimed to investigate the relationship between canned fish consumption and CRC risk. We analysed data from two case−control studies conducted between 1992 and 2010 in several Italian areas, comprising a total of 2419 incident cases and 4723 hospital controls.

Impact of the post-COVID-19 condition on health care after the first disease wave in Lombardy.

Background: Lombardy was affected in the early months of 2020 by the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic with very high morbidity and mortality. The post-COVID-19 condition and related public health burden are scarcely known.

Setting And Design: Using the regional population administrative database including all the 48,932 individuals who survived COVID-19 and became polymerase-chain-reaction negative for SARS-CoV-2 by 31 May 2020, incident mortality, rehospitalizations, attendances to hospital emergency room, and outpatient medical visits were evaluated over a mid-term period of 6 months in 20,521 individuals managed at home, 26,016 hospitalized in medical wards, and 1611 in intensive care units (ICUs).

Effects of goal-oriented care for adults with multimorbidity: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To systematically review the evidence from randomized controlled trials comparing the effects of goal-oriented care against standard care for multimorbid adults.

Data Sources/study Setting: The literature presenting the results of randomized trials assessing the outcomes of goal-oriented care compared with usual care for adults with multimorbidity.

Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

The quality of mental health care delivered to patients with schizophrenia and related disorders in the Italian mental health system. The QUADIM project: a multi-regional Italian investigation based on healthcare utilisation databases.

Aims: To evaluate the quality of mental health care delivered to patients with schizophrenia and related disorders taken-in-care by mental health services in four Italian regions (Lombardy, Emilia-Romagna, Lazio, Sicily).

Methods: Thirty-one clinical indicators concerning accessibility, appropriateness, continuity and safety were defined and estimated using healthcare utilisation (HCU) databases, containing data on mental health treatments, hospital admissions, outpatient interventions, lab tests and drug prescriptions.

Results: A total of 70 586 prevalent patients with schizophrenia and related disorders treated in 2015 were identified, of whom 1752 were newly taken-in-care by the facilities of regional mental health services.