The effect of false positive breast screening examinations on subsequent attendance: retrospective cohort study.

Objectives: To investigate the effect of false positive breast screening examination results on subsequent attendance in the UK National Health Service Breast Screening Programme.

Methods: 253,017 previously screened women who were invited for rescreening were studied. Attendance rates of women who had received a normal result at the last (index) screen were compared with those of women who had received a false positive result.

Hormone replacement therapy and false positive recall in the Million Women Study: patterns of use, hormonal constituents and consistency of effect.

Introduction: Current and recent users of hormone replacement therapy (HRT) have an increased risk of being recalled to assessment at mammography without breast cancer being diagnosed ('false positive recall'), but there is limited information on the effects of different patterns of HRT use on this. The aim of this study is to investigate in detail the relationship between patterns of use of HRT and false positive recall.

Methods: A total of 87,967 postmenopausal women aged 50 to 64 years attending routine breast cancer screening at 10 UK National Health Service Breast Screening Units from 1996 to 1998 joined the Million Women Study by completing a questionnaire before screening and were followed for their screening outcome.

Service use and outcomes of first-admission patients with psychotic disorders in the Suffolk County Mental Health Project.

Objective: The purpose of the study was to examine the inpatient and outpatient service use and 4-year outcomes of newly admitted psychotic patients during a period of rapid change in the provision of psychiatric services in a well-defined catchment area in New York State in the 1990s.

Method: Subjects were 573 participants of the Suffolk County Mental Health Project. This group comprised patients with psychotic disorders first admitted between September 1989 and August 1995 to 12 inpatient facilities across Suffolk County, N.

Medication use patterns and 2-year outcome in first-admission bipolar disorder with psychotic features.

Objective: This study examined the patterns and predictors of medication use and 24-month course/outcome in first-admission patients with bipolar disorder (BD) with psychotic features.

Method: An epidemiologic sample of 155 first-admission patients with research diagnoses of BD with psychotic features received intensive clinical assessments at baseline, 6- and 24-month follow-ups and telephone assessments at 3-month intervals. Use of antipsychotics, antimanic agents (lithium and anticonvulsants), and antidepressants was determined from self-reports corroborated by external sources where possible.

Influence of personal characteristics of individual women on sensitivity and specificity of mammography in the Million Women Study: cohort study.

Objectives: To examine how lifestyle, hormonal, and other factors influence the sensitivity and specificity of mammography.

Methods: Women recruited into the Million Women Study completed a questionnaire about various personal factors before routine mammographic screening. A sample of 122,355 women aged 50-64 years were followed for outcome of screening and incident breast cancer in the next 12 months.

Are there racial differences in the way patients with psychotic disorders are treated at their first hospitalization?

Background: It is now well documented that both black and white patients with severe mental illness are likely to use different types of treatment facilities, have different lengths of hospital stays, and receive different types and dosages of psychotropic medications. It is still uncertain, however, whether these differences exist at the early stages of treatment.

Method: We examined treatment patterns for a countywide sample of patients with psychotic disorders recruited at their initial psychiatric hospitalization.

Atypical antipsychotics in first admission schizophrenia: medication continuation and outcomes.

This study compares the effects of atypical and conventional antipsychotic medications on treatment continuation and outcomes in a first admission sample of patients with schizophrenia treated in usual practice settings. In a sample of 189 participants with a research diagnosis of DSM-IV schizophrenia drawn from the Suffolk County Mental Health Project, we compared the effects of atypical and conventional agents on change of medication, medication gaps, and rehospitalization. For these analyses we used the method of survival analysis for recurrent events, in which the episodes of treatment rather than individual subjects are the units of analysis.

Endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair outside a tertiary referral centre: feasibility and impact upon workload.

In the UK, the majority of endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repairs (EVAR) are carried out in tertiary referral centres. We studied the feasibility and impact upon workload of an endovascular programme introduced into a district general hospital. Data was collected prospectively on all patients considered for EVAR since the inception of the programme in April 1999.

Gaps in use of antipsychotics after discharge by first-admission patients with schizophrenia, 1989 to 1996.

The authors examined gaps in the use of antipsychotic medications during the one-year period after discharge in an epidemiological sample of 189 first-admission patients with schizophrenia between July 1989 and January 1996. Sixty-three percent of the patients had one or more such gaps, and 51 percent had gaps of 30 days or longer, with an average total time off medication of about seven months. Most gaps occurred soon after discharge, and 73 percent were initiated by the patient.

Trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder in psychosis: findings from a first-admission cohort.

This study examined the lifetime prevalence of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and their demographic, diagnostic, and trauma-related correlates in a clinical cohort of 426 patients with a first psychiatric admission for psychosis. The prevalence of trauma exposure was 68.5%.