Evaluating Open Dialogue in Italian mental health services: evidence from a multisite prospective cohort study.

Objective: This longitudinal study aimed to quantitatively document and evaluate the implementation and outcomes of the Open Dialogue (OD) approach within Italian Mental Health Departments (MHDs), focusing on the ratings of OD-network meetings by patients and their families and assessing the clinical outcomes over a span of 12 months.

Results: Over the course of the study, 58 patients participated in 517 OD-network meetings, demonstrating a high level of satisfaction with the care received, as evidenced by the Session Rating Scale (SRS) and Outcome Rating Scale (ORS). Clinically, significant improvements were observed in the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF), Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-OM), and the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS), indicating enhanced psychological and social functioning.

Quality of care indicators for schizophrenia: determinants of observed variations among Italian Departments of Mental Health. Results from the ETAS DSM study.

Aims: The primary aim of this study is to analyse the conformance of usual care patterns for persons with schizophrenia to treatment guidelines in three Italian Departments of Mental Health (DMHs). The secondary aim is to examine possible organisational and structural reasons accounting for variations among DMHs.

Methods: Within the framework of the Evaluation of Treatment Appropriateness in Schizophrenia (ETAS) project, 20 consensus quality of care indicators were developed.

Thirty-five years of community psychiatry in Italy.

The Italian Psychiatric Reform of 1978 is reviewed here in terms of national/regional mental health (MH) policies and with the help of epidemiological data. The reform law was essentially a framework one, and Italy's 21 regions were called to draft detailed organizational norms and to implement their systems. This explains a relevant interregional variability, despite several national MH plans.

Evaluation of an integrated system for classification, assessment and comparison of services for long-term care in Europe: the eDESDE-LTC study.

Background: The harmonization of European health systems brings with it a need for tools to allow the standardized collection of information about medical care. A common coding system and standards for the description of services are needed to allow local data to be incorporated into evidence-informed policy, and to permit equity and mobility to be assessed. The aim of this project has been to design such a classification and a related tool for the coding of services for Long Term Care (DESDE-LTC), based on the European Service Mapping Schedule (ESMS).

Public beliefs and attitudes towards depression in Italy: a national survey.

Background: Previous studies have shown that attitudes towards depression may be influenced by country-specific social and cultural factors. A survey was carried out to collect beliefs on and attitudes toward depression in Italy, which has an established community-based mental health system.

Methods: A telephone survey was carried out in a probabilistic sample aged ≥15 years.

Postharvest management affects spearmint and calamint essential oils.

Background: The objectives of this work were to evaluate the phytomass yield, essential oil (EO) content and EO yield of Mentha spicata L. var. rubra, M.

Process of implementation and development of early psychosis clinical services in Italy: a survey.

Aim: To carry out an in-depth survey into the method of providing early intervention in schizophrenia in Italy and to evaluate the process of development of early psychosis clinical services following the pilot programme 'Programma 2000' and the publishing of Italian National Guidelines.

Methods: Topic-specific national and international clinical and research programmes, alongside national guidelines, were taken into consideration in order to create an ad hoc questionnaire. A telephone survey using this questionnaire was carried out.

The utility of the Necessity--Concerns Framework in explaining treatment non-adherence in four chronic illness groups in Italy.

Objective: To translate the Beliefs about Medicines Questionnaire (BMQ) into Italian and explore the utility of the Necessity-Concerns Framework in explaining treatment non-adherence in four chronic illness groups in Italy.

Methods: 449 patients with chronic illness (depression, asthma, diabetes and cardiac disease) were approached at outpatient clinics in Turin and asked to complete Italian translations of the BMQ and the Medication Adherence Report Scale.

Results: 427 patients consented to participate in the study.

Structural and organizational determinants of quality of care in patients with schizophrenia in Italy.

Several reports have described the poor quality of care delivered to psychotic patients. However, the context in which care was delivered, including the structure, organization, and performance of the health care system, as a possible determinant of quality of care has received less attention. In this study we explored the relationship between conformance with guidelines and structural and organizational characteristics in 2 departments of Mental Health in Italy.

Indicators of conformance with guidelines of schizophrenia treatment in mental health services.

Objective: The aim of this study was to develop indicators of conformance in clinical practice with guidelines for care in schizophrenia. Recommended guidelines rarely apply to all patients and need to allow for social ability, family context, and phase of the disorder. These indicators were therefore devised for tailoring to patient characteristics and allowing for factors that may justify the lack of adherence to clinical guidelines.

[Social deprivation and mental health. Replicability and applicability in the Italian context of the resource allocation methods developed in the United Kingdom].

Aims: Most of the available evidence on the relationship between socioeconomic indicators of social deprivation and patterns of use of mental health services has been produced in the United Kingdom, where the Ministry of Health has developed a resource allocation formula based upon the results of those studies. The main aim of the paper is to evaluate the replicability in the Italian context of such research, and of the resulting allocation strategies.

Methods: Detailed description of the resource allocation method currently adopted in the United Kingdom, whose main purpose consists in reaching the best balance between available funding and patterns of need.

Improving compliance in depression: a systematic review of narrative reviews.

Background And Objective: Narrative reviews represent a popular source of information for clinicians, especially where the evidence on a given subject is sparse and analogies from other fields of medicine may help in filling the information gap. Unfortunately, narrative reviews often follow less stringent criteria for information selection and appraisal than systematic reviews, potentially leading to incomplete or biased recommendations. The objective of the present study was to examine the quality of the recommendations provided by narrative reviews on how to improve patient adherence to pharmacological treatment of unipolar depressive disorders.

Indicators predicting use of mental health services in Piedmont, Italy.

Background: Since the 1978 Italian reform, an integrated network of community mental health services has been introduced. With few exceptions, research on determinants of mental health service use at the district level has focused on inpatient activities and social deprivation indicators. The European Psychiatric Care Assessment Team (EPCAT) standardized methodology allows for an evidence-based comparison of mental health systems between geographical areas.

Patterns of mental health service utilisation in Italy and Spain--an investigation using the European Service Mapping Schedule.

Background: Methods for comparing local mental health service systems are needed to allow identification of different patterns of service provision and of inequities within and between countries.

Aim: The aim of this study was to describe and compare mental health service systems in 13 catchment areas in Spain and Italy. Within each country, a range of area characteristics was represented.

Understanding treatment adherence in affective disorders: a qualitative study.

The objective of this study was to explore the perspective of depressed patients, their family and mental health professionals from their community mental health centre (CMHC) on factors related to treatment adherence. We conducted eight separate focus groups involving patients, their families and their therapists from three CMHCs. A total of 52 persons were involved.

Combined pharmacotherapy and psychological treatment for depression: a systematic review.

Background: Adherence to antidepressant medication use is a problem in clinical practice. Some authors have posited that combined psychological treatment facilitates adherence to pharmacotherapy.

Objectives: To study the relationship between adherence to use of and efficacy of antidepressant drugs plus psychological treatment vs drug treatment alone in depressive disorders.

Patient adherence in the treatment of depression.

Background: Non-adherence with antidepressant treatment is very common. Increasing adherence to pharmacological treatment may affect response rate.

Aims: To review and summarise quantitative evidence on factors associated with adherence and of adherence-enhancing interventions.

Mental health care in Piedmont: a description of its structure and components using a new technology for service assessment.

Objective: The northern-Italian region of Piedmont has a total population of 4.3 million. The regional territory is currently divided into 22 local health services, each serving a population not exceeding 300,000 and incorporating a Department of Mental Health.