RESEARCH ARTICLE


Flexible Assertive Community Treatment, Severity of Symptoms and Psychiatric Health Service Use, a Real life Observational Study



Marjan Drukker1, †, *, Ellen Visser†, 2, Sjoerd Sytema2, Jim van Os1, 3
1 Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, School for Mental Health and Neuroscience MHeNS, Maastricht University, p.o. box 616, Location Vijverdal, 6200 MD, Maastricht, the Netherlands
2 Department of Psychiatry, University Medical Centre Groningen, University of Groningen, Rob Giel Centre, p.o. box 30.001, 9700 RB Groningen, the Netherlands
3 King's College London, King's Health Partners Department of Psychosis Studies; Institute of Psychiatry, London, UK

Article Information


Identifiers and Pagination:

Year: 2013
Volume: 9
First Page: 202
Last Page: 209
Publisher ID: CPEMH-9-202
DOI: 10.2174/1745017901309010202

Article History:

Received Date: 15/5/2013
Revision Received Date: 12/9/2013
Acceptance Date: 16/9/2013
Electronic publication date: 28/11/2013
Collection year: 2013

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Creative Commons License
© Drukker et al.; Licensee Bentham Open.

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.

* Address correspondence to this author at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, School for Mental Health and NeuroScience MHeNS, Maastricht University, p.o. box 616, location Vijverdal, 6200 MD Maastricht, the Netherlands; Tel: +31-(0)43-3883913; Fax: +31-(0)43-3884122 E-mail: marjan.drukker@maastrichtuniversity.nl
† Shared first authorship


Abstract

Background:

Introduction of Flexible Assertive Community Treatment (FACT) may be associated with increased remission rates and changes in patterns of care. The present paper reports on differences in psychosocial functioning and health care use between patients in FACT and two groups of patients not currently provided with a specific model of community service.

Methods:

The ongoing "Pharmacotherapy Monitoring and Outcome Survey" provided routine outcome measures of patients using antipsychotics in the north of the Netherlands. Level of psychosocial functioning was assessed using the Health of the Nations Outcome Scales (HoNOS) and matched with psychiatric health care consumption obtained from the Psychiatric Case Register. Patients who never received FACT, patients ever in FACT but not at assessment date, and patients in FACT were identified. Data were subjected to multilevel linear regression analysis.

Results:

Data showed that most patients in FACT also had non-FACT episodes after the start of FACT. Furthermore, patients in FACT displayed higher levels of psychosocial functioning and used more outpatient care than the other two groups.

Conclusions:

Patients in FACT receive more outpatient care and have better psychosocial functioning. However, causal inferences cannot be derived from these data. In addition, membership of a FACT-team in this setting did not last indefinitely.

Keywords: : Assertive Community Treatment, Health Care, Population Register, Psychiatry, Psychosocial Factors, Severity of Illness.