Routine Drug Screening for Patients in the Emergency Department of a State Psychiatric Hospital: A Naturalistic Cohort Study.

Objective: This study investigates the proportion of drug users among patients with mental disorders who attended the emergency department of one major psychiatric hospital in Northern Israel, the most frequent psychiatric diagnoses associated with drug use, and the impact of confirmed drug use on hospital admission. We hypothesized that the proportion of individuals with positive urine drug test results presenting at the psychiatric emergency department during the study period would be 20% to 30%.

Methods: An unselected cohort of 2,019 adult patients who visited the emergency department of Sha'ar Menashe Mental Health Center, a university-affiliated government facility, was evaluated and underwent routine urine drug testing between April 2012 and February 2014.

Voting rights for psychiatric patients: compromise of the integrity of elections, or empowerment and integration into the community?

Background: Participation of the mentally-ill in elections promotes integration into the community. In many countries, individuals with compromised mental incompetence who have legal guardians are denied the right to vote. In Israel, mental health consumers are eligible to vote.

Internalization of stigma and self-esteem as it affects the capacity for intimacy among patients with schizophrenia.

The study examines the relationship between internalization of stigma, self-esteem, and the ability of people diagnosed with schizophrenia to form intimate attachments with loved ones. The study included sixty patients with schizophrenia, ages 18-60, men and women. After providing informed consent, all participants completed four questionnaires: Demographics Questionnaire, Self-Esteem Scale, Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale and the Intimacy Attitude Scale-Revised.

Evaluation of the capacity of inpatients with chronic schizophrenia to provide informed consent for participation in clinical trials; use of the Hebrew version of the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR).

Background: Patient protection requires the provision of informed consent for participation in medical research. The MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Clinical Research (MacCAT-CR) is frequently used for screening the capacity of research subjects to consent to participate in research.

Objectives: To evaluate the utility of the Hebrew translation of the MacCAT-CR for assessing the capacity of patients with chronic schizophrenia to provide informed consent to participate in clinical trials.