E. Rasore, U. Menichini, P. Fornaro, F. Gabrielli - Vol. 11, March 2005, Issue 1
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Indice
Le psicosi acute: una catamnesi a 10
anni
Acute psychoses: a 10-year follow-up
Out of a total of 838 subjects admitted during 1991, 28 (3.3%) with a diagnosis of "Acute Psychosis" (ICD-9) were evaluated 10 years after discharge. Mean age of patients at time of hospitalization was 39.6 years; traumatic events occurred before the admission in a half of the patients and in the 43% a history of previous admissions for psychiatric disorders was present. Information collected from 14 subjects indicates that half of the patient sample continued treatment after discharge for ten years. This treatment consisted in neuroleptics (14.3%); benzodiazepine (BDZ) (3.6%); neuroleptics plus BDZ (71.4%); neuroleptics plus BDZ and antidepressants (7.1%); neuroleptics plus BDZ and mood stabilisers (3.6%). Half of the patients we were able to contact (7) had been re-hospitalized for psychotic decompensation. Concerning the remaining 14 patients lost to follow-up, 8 were unknown to Mental Health Public Services, 6 were foreigners, homeless or attending the military service. The course of the illness in the studied patients, was the following: 9 are still treated as outpatients, 3 moved to another geographic area, 1 recovered and 1 died. The diagnoses of the 14 patients worsened during the follow-up period: 5 received a diagnosis of schizophrenia; the other diagnoses were: schizoaffective syndrome (1), persistent delusional disorder (1), mood disorder (3), organic depressive syndrome (1), dementia (1), paranoid personality disorder (1), no diagnosis (14).