Therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) during maintenance phase treatment at a community mental health centre.

Objective: To assess the extent to which therapeutic drug monitoring during maintenance phase treatment with lithium and clozapine was performed according to an agreed protocol and to identify strategies that may support monitoring.

Methods: Data concerning the prescribing and monitoring patterns of lithium for 31 patients and clozapine for 53 patients were collected retrospectively over a period of 2 years.

Results: Adherence to clozapine monitoring throughout the study period was 90.

An Event Related Potentials Study of Semantic Coherence Effect during Episodic Encoding in Schizophrenia Patients.

The objective of this electrophysiological study was to investigate the processing of semantic coherence during encoding in relation to episodic memory processes promoted at test, in schizophrenia patients, by using the N400 paradigm. Eighteen schizophrenia patients and 15 healthy participants undertook a recognition memory task. The stimuli consisted of pairs of words either semantically related or unrelated to a given category name (context).

Effect of semantic coherence on episodic memory processes in schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is associated with severe episodic retrieval impairment. The aim of this study was to investigate the possibility that schizophrenia patients could improve their familiarity and/or recollection processes by manipulating the semantic coherence of to-be-learned stimuli and using deep encoding. Twelve schizophrenia patients and 12 healthy controls of comparable age, gender, and educational level undertook an associative recognition memory task.

Weight Gain Risk Factor assessment checklist: overview and recommendation for use.

Objectives: Patients with mental illness are at risk for weight gain. Evidence-based risk assessment checklists have the potential to identify patients at risk early in treatment and improve patient outcomes.

Methods: The 16-item Weight Gain Risk Factor (WGRF-16) checklist has been developed as a simple brief assessment of key weight gain risk factors during antipsychotic treatment.