The Canadian National Outcomes Measurement Study in Schizophrenia: overview of the patient sample and methodology.

Objective: The Canadian National Outcomes Measurement Study in Schizophrenia (CNOMSS) is a prospective survey of routine clinical practice.

Method: Patients with schizophrenia or a related disorder were consecutively enrolled from all regions of Canada. Both academic and community psychiatric clinics were included and patients were followed up for 2 years. Clinical and functional status, quality of life, medication and economic costs were assessed at enrollment and monitored throughout the follow-up period.

Results: Patients attending an academic clinic tended to be younger and more severely ill than those from community clinics. Both types of sites prescribed atypical neuroleptics to more than three-quarters of the patients. The majority of those enrolled were unemployed and living in poverty. Poor clinical status was associated with poverty.

Conclusion: The CNOMSS provides demographic, clinical and treatment-related information about a large Canada-wide sample of psychiatric patients. The following three articles in this issue of Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica explore issues related to medication, quality of life and resource utilization.