Use of electronic technologies to promote community and personal health for individuals unconnected to health care systems.

Ensuring health care services for populations outside the mainstream health care system is challenging for all providers. But developing the health care infrastructure to better serve such unconnected individuals is critical to their health care status, to third-party payers, to overall cost savings in public health, and to reducing health disparities. Our increasingly sophisticated electronic technologies offer promising ways to more effectively engage this difficult to reach group and increase its access to health care resources.

Mental health services use and symptom prevalence in a cohort of adults on probation.

Objective: This study examined the prevalence of mental disorder symptoms among adult probationers and the probability of mental health service use.

Methods: Data from the 2001 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse were used to obtain information on adults reporting mental disorder symptoms who had been on probation within the past year and those who had not.

Results: Twenty-seven percent of probationers (N=311 of 1,168) and 17% of nonprobationers (N=5,830 of 34,230) had mental disorder symptoms.

Prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among patients receiving clozapine.

Objective: This study compared the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome among outpatients with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder receiving clozapine with a matched comparison group from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Method: Ninety-three outpatients and a matched group of 2,701 comparison subjects were compared according to National Cholesterol Education Program criteria. Outpatient data were obtained through physical assessments, laboratory testing, and reviews of medical records.

Diabetes mellitus among outpatients receiving clozapine: prevalence and clinical-demographic correlates.

Background: Treatment with antipsychotic drugs has been associated with increased risk for developing diabetes mellitus. Recent consensus statements suggest that clozapine may pose an especially high risk. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and clinical-demographic correlates of diabetes among outpatients with DSM-IV-diagnosed schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder receiving clozapine.

Prevalence of diabetes mellitus among outpatients with severe mental disorders receiving atypical antipsychotic drugs.

Background: Recent studies have suggested that patients receiving atypical antipsychotic drugs are at increased risk for developing diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence of diabetes in a group of adults with schizophrenia and other severe mental disorders receiving atypical antipsychotic drugs within a community mental health center setting.

Method: A retrospective chart review was conducted on 436 outpatients receiving either atypical antipsychotic or decanoate antipsychotic drugs at a community mental health center.