Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T04:20:54.091Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Staff perception on reduction of medication in patients with chronic schizophrenia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

A. Thomas
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry and Psychology, UMDS, Guy's Hospital London SE1 9RT
G. Katsabouris
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry and Psychology, UMDS, Guy's Hospital London SE1 9RT
N. Bouras*
Affiliation:
Division of Psychiatry and Psychology, UMDS, Guy's Hospital London SE1 9RT
*
Correspondence
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This exploratory study assessed staff perceptions to the reduction of maintenance neuroleptic medication in patients with chronic schizophrenia living in a long-stay hospital. Ten in-patients were assessed at regular times over six months. In addition to the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS), data were obtained from nursing staff on patients' ward behaviour (Ward Behaviour Interview Schedule, WBIS), clinical global opinion (CGI) and staff reaction (SR) to the reduction of medication plan. The average decrease of BPRS and WBIS was not related to keyworker's clinical global impression. The SR increased against the reduction of medication over the study period (P<0.05). Staff perceptions in the treatment of patients with chronic schizophrenia and their possible influence on prescribed closes should be taken into consideration in addition to psychopathology and clinical symptoms.

Type
Original Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC-BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 The Royal College of Psychiatrists

References

American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Blunden, J., Hodgskiss, A., Klemperer, F., et al (1994) The Ward Daily Behaviour Scale. British Journal of Psychiatry, 165, 8793.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Endicott, J., Spitzer, R. L., Fleiss, J. L., et al (1976) The Global Assessment Scale: a procedure for measuring overall severity of psychiatric disturbance. Archives of General Psychiatry, 33, 766771.Google Scholar
Edwards, G. J. (1982) Factors influencing the psychotropic drug choices of teachers of psychiatry. British Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology, 2, 2426.Google Scholar
Foster, P. (1989) The neuroleptic equivalence. Pharmaceutical Journal, 9, 431432.Google Scholar
Greenfield, T., McNiel, D. & Binder, R. (1989) Violent behavior and length of psychiatric hospitalization. Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 40, 809815.Google Scholar
Holloway, F. (1988) Prescribing for the long-term mentally ill: a study of treatment practices. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 511515.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kane, J. (1987) Treatment of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 13, 133153.Google Scholar
Krakowski, M., Kunz, M., Czobor, P., et al (1993) Long-term high-dose neuroleptic treatment: who gets it and why? Hospital and Community Psychiatry, 44, 640644.Google ScholarPubMed
Leblanc, G., Cormier, H., Gagne, M. A., et al (1994) Effects of neuroleptic reduction in schizophrenic outpatients receiving high doses. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 39, 223229.Google Scholar
Muijen, M. & Silverstone, T. (1987) A comparative hospital survey of psychotropic drug prescribing. British Journal of Psychiatry, 150, 501504.Google Scholar
Overall, J. E. & Gorham, D. R. (1962) The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Psychological Reports, 10, 799812.Google Scholar
Reardon, G. T., Rifkin, A., Schwartz, A., et al (1970) Changing patterns of neuroleptic usage over a decade. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 726729.Google Scholar
Rifkin, A., Doddi, S., Karajgi, B., et al (1991) Dosage of haloperidol for schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry, 48, 166170.Google Scholar
Soni, S. D., Sampath, G., Shah, A., et al (1992) Rationalizing neuroleptic polypharmacy in chronic schizophrenics: effects of changing to a single depot preparation. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 85, 354359.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Thompson, C. (1994) The use of high-dose antipsychotic medication. British Journal of Psychiatry, 164, 448458.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Putten, T., Marshall, B. D., Liberman, R., et al (1993) Systematic dosage reduction in treatment-resistant schizophrenic patients. Psychopharmacology Bulletin, 29, 315320.Google Scholar
Warner, J. P., Slade, R. & Barnes, R. E. (1995) Change in neuroleptic prescribing practice. Psychiatric Bulletin, 19, 237239.Google Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.