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Background: The next generation of studies on antidepressant drug prescriptions in general practice needs to assess both the patterns of prescription and its appropriateness. This study aimed to assess the performance of the Personal Health Questionnaire (PHQ), a new questionnaire for detecting individuals with ICD- 10 depressive disorders, to be used in association with companion instruments for assessing the 'quality' of antidepressant prescriptions in primary care settings., Methods: The PHQ was completed by 1,413 primary care attenders (100 were re-tested after 7-14 days) and 139 were selected and interviewed using the SCAN-2 and the 17-item HDRS. All data were analysed using appropriately weighted procedures to control for two-phase sampling design and non-response bias. Individual weights were estimated by logistic regression analysis and trimming strategy., Results: PHQ internal consistency and test-retest on both Likert score and number of symptoms were high. The PHQ discriminated well between individuals with and without depressive disorders. A Likert score > or = 9 provided a good trade-off between sensitivity (0.78) and specificity (0.83). The screening accuracy of the PHQ in detecting subjects likely to benefit from antidepressant drug treatment (SCAN cases with a HDRS total score of 13 or higher) was satisfactory (ROC area 0.87: sensitivity 0.84; specificity 0.78)., Conclusions: The PHQ can be strongly suggested as an accurate and economic screener to identify primary care attenders at high risk of being clinically depressed. However, in order to identify patients requiring antidepressant drug treatment, a second-phase assessment of PHQ high scorers (total score of > or = 10), using the HDRS, is needed.

Background: We have recently reported a two-phase study on psychiatric morbidity in a sample of general hospital patients. This paper reports the results of the 6-month and 12-month follow-up of these patients., Methods: The screening questionnaire was the GHQ-12. The main diagnostic instrument used in the second phase was the CIDI-PHC. All patients who had been interviewed with CIDI-PHC (N = 363) were followed-up and the baseline assessment was compared with the scoring on questionnaires administered in the 6-month postal enquiry and with the psychopathological status at 12-month, elicited with a telephone structured interview., Results: Sixty-two and 87% of patients completed the 6- and 12-month follow-up assessment respectively. The first follow-up indicated no significant decrease in the level of symptoms. The 12-month follow-up interview showed that 23% of males and 40% of females had poor/mostly poor mental health. The logistic model showed that females with a definite ICD-10 diagnosis, admitted to a medical department, who had consumed psychotropic drugs in the previous year, had the most unfavourable outcome. The risk of a poor/mostly poor outcome steadily increased with the severity of the psychopathology during hospitalization., Conclusion: In medical and surgical general hospital patients the risk factors associated with a poor mental health outcome are similar to those found in primary care patients. Greater attention should be paid in assessing routinely mental health status of general hospital patients during hospitalization.

Background: This study aimed to assess psychiatric morbidity and to collect information on disability, life events and family support in a representative sample of patients admitted to a general hospital., Methods: On the basis of information collected in a pilot study a systematic sample of patients consecutively admitted to seven general medical and seven surgical wards of the Academic General Hospital of Verona was selected and interviewed using a two-phase screening procedure and standardized instruments (GHQ-12, HADS, BDQ and CIDI-PHC). All data were analysed using appropriately weighted logistic regression procedures., Results: A total of 1039 patients completed the GHQ-12 and 298 (28.7%) were high-scorers: 363 patients were interviewed with CIDI-PHC. The prevalence of ICD-10 cases was 26.1%. The most common psychiatric diagnoses were current depression (12.8%) and generalized anxiety disorder (10.8%), followed by alcohol related disorders (5 %). A higher prevalence of ICD-10 cases was found in medical wards, among females, patients older than 24 years, unemployed and separated/divorced people. Life events were associated with psychopathology, and so was the number of disability days. Although 49.8% of ICD-10 cases were identified by the hospital doctors as having a psychological disorder, 23.1% of ICD-10 cases were referred to the liaison psychiatric service., Conclusion: The results of the present study stress the need to collect epidemiologically-based data on psychological disorders and their recognition not only in general practice, but also in general hospital settings, in order to have a more complete picture of the pathways to specialist care.

Background: Typologies of anxiety, depression and somatization symptoms were investigated in individuals with no formal mental disorders, making no a priori assumptions about symptom distribution and inter-relationship., Method: The subjects were 1617 adult primary care attenders from the WHO Collaborative Project on Psychological Problems in General Health Care, with at least three symptoms of anxiety, depression and/or somatization, but with no formal ICD-10 disorders. Analyses were based on the grade of membership model, a multivariate statistical procedure exploring indistinct boundaries between disease categories and preserving the heterogeneity of clinical picture within each category., Results: Six prototype categories (or pure types) best described the structure of symptoms included in analyses. Pure type I included the full set of somatization symptoms. Pure type II was characterized by most anxiety and depression symptoms. Pure type III resembled generalized anxiety disorder. Pure type IV consisted of individuals reporting sporadic symptoms of anxiety, depression or somatization. Pure type V defined individuals with sleep problems. Finally, pure type VI was characterized by anxiety symptoms, including panic-like symptoms., Conclusions: These findings provide support to the existence of a mixed anxiety-depression category crossing the diagnostic boundaries of current anxiety and depression disorders. Moreover, criteria of anxiety and somatization disorders may be re-examined to assess whether lower diagnostic thresholds can be identified that both preserve the symptom profile and clinical features of current diagnostic categories and allow for a better characterization of individuals with substantial psychopathology though not meeting the high symptom thresholds required for a diagnosis of formal mental disorders.

Background: Life events and social problems are common in primary-care attenders and contribute to the high rate of emotional distress observed in this setting but are often not disclosed during the consultation. Physicians' characteristics associated with patients' disclosure of psychosocial problems are well documented, but less empirical evidence is available on the contribution of patients' variables., Method: Logistic regression analyses were performed on a set of clinical and psychosocial data from 319 primary-care attenders with stressful life events and/or social problems in the presence or absence of emotional distress, in order to identify the variables that predict disclosure of such problems during the consultation., Results: Two-thirds of patients with stressful life events and social problems had mentioned them to their GP. In both sexes a positive attitude about confiding and emotional distress were the best predictors of confiding. In men they accounted for 76% of correct predictions and, in women, together with past confiding, long-lasting relationship with GP, and coexistence of life events and social problems, for 81%. A positive confiding attitude was related in males to age and severity of medical condition and in females to age and experience of past confiding., Conclusions: In view of the high prevalence of positive attitude towards confiding the efforts by GPs should focus on the reduction of disclosure thresholds. This would require increased abilities to elicit psychosocial information and show emphatic understanding of patients' life difficulties. By contrast there is a need to promote a positive attitude in confiding that concerns only a minority of primary-care patients. More data are needed for shaping more specific strategies for these patients.

Background: Short-term outcome of mental health care was assessed in a multidimensional perspective using graphical chain models, a new multivariate method that analyses the relationship between variables conditionally, i.e. taking into account the effect of antecedent and intervening variables., Methods: GAF, BPRS, DAS (at baseline and after 6 months), LQL and VSSS (at follow-up only) were administered to 194 patients attending the South-Verona community-based mental health service. Direct costs in the interval were also calculated. Graphical chain models were used to analyse: (1) the associations between predictors (psychopathology, disability, functioning, assessed at baseline); (2) the effects of predictors on costs; and (3) the effect of predictors and costs on outcomes (psychopathology, disability, functioning, quality of life and service satisfaction) as well as their correlation., Results: Psychopathology, disability and functioning scores at baseline predicted the corresponding scores at 6-month follow-up, with greater improvement in the more severely ill. Higher psychopathology and poorer functioning at baseline predicted higher costs and, in turn, costs predicted poorer functioning at follow-up. Outcome indicators polarized in two groups: psychopathology, disability and functioning, which were highly correlated; and the dyad service satisfaction and quality of life. Service satisfaction was highly related to quality of life and was predicted by low disability and high dysfunctioning. No predictors for quality of life were found., Conclusions: Graphical chain models were demonstrated to be a useful methodology to analyse process and outcome data. The results of the present study help in formulating specific hypotheses for future studies on outcome.

Background: The reform of mental health services needs to be guided by an overall conceptual framework. Such a framework is important to avoid many risks, including extrapolating from a specific service site to other services, without taking into account local and regional variables., Methods: A conceptual framework, the 'matrix model', is proposed. This model has been developed using the most relevant information that is necessary for describing and interpreting mental health services data as well as patient-based information., Results: The 'matrix model' has two dimensions: the geographical, which refers to three levels (country, local and patient) and the temporal, which refers to three phases (inputs, processes and outcomes). Using these two dimensions a nine-cell matrix is constructed to bring into focus critical issues for mental health services. The relevance of each level and each phase is briefly presented., Conclusions: The matrix is intended to assist clinicians, planners and researchers to deal with clinical phenomena, organizational issues, and research questions that share a degree of complexity that render inadequate analyses and the interventions made only at one level. The matrix model applies particularly to mental health systems of care that are provided with a public health framework, and is less useful for contexts that consist of clinicians offering only one-to-one treatments, within fragmented programmes of care.

Background: Analysing costs measures in conjunction with psychiatric case register (PCR) data can provide important epidemiologically-based information on resource utilization. Costing the service use patterns of first-ever patients can indicate the shape and likely resource consequences for mental health services operating within a community-based system of care., Methods: Yearly costs were calculated for the 299 first-ever patients and 768 longer-term patients who contacted the South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register between 1 January 1992 and 31 December 1993. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to compare costs between these groups and to test the associations between costs and the sociodemographic and diagnostic data recorded on the PCR., Results: For all diagnostic groups identified, first-ever patients were found to be less costly to support than longer-term patients, even after adjustment for various factors, including whether patients were single consulters. When multivariate analyses were employed, between 20% and 69% of the cost variation for first-ever patients could be explained by patient and other characteristics, and the effect of the contact (first or subsequent) variable was reduced., Conclusion: This study considered only the costs to the specialist psychiatric services but the methodology allows the likely annual resource implications of supporting new patients to be predicted from data collected at first contact. Such information can help ensure that services are adequately funded and that the resources are deployed appropriately between client groups.

Background: Gender and cross-cultural differences in the association between somatic symptoms and emotional distress were investigated, using data from the World Health Organization Collaborative Project on Psychological Problems in General Health Care., Methods: Data were collected at 15 centres in 14 countries around the world. At each centre, a stratified random sample of primary care attenders aged 15-65 years was assessed using, among other instruments, the 28-item General Health Questionnaire and the Composite International Diagnostic Interview-Primary Health Care Version., Results: Females reported higher levels of somatic symptoms and emotional distress than males. A strong correlation between somatic symptoms and emotional distress was found in both sexes, with females reporting more somatic symptoms at each level of emotional distress. However, linear regression analysis showed that gender had no significant effect on level of somatic symptoms, when the effects of centre and emotional distress were controlled for. In both sexes, no specific pattern of association emerged between somatic symptom clusters and either anxiety or depression. Primary care attenders from less developed centres reported more somatic symptoms and showed greater gender differences than individuals from more developed centres, but inter-centre differences were small. Finally, gender was not a significant predictor of reason for consultation (somatic versus mental/behavioural symptoms), after controlling for levels of somatic symptoms and emotional distress as well as for centre effect., Conclusions: These data do not support the common belief that females somatize more than males or the traditional view that somatization is a basic orientation prevailing in developing countries. Instead, somatic symptoms and emotional distress are strongly associated in primary care attenders, with few differences between the two sexes and across cultures.

Comparison between general practice attenders and community subjects with emotional distress (as measured by GHQ-12) showed that women from a general practice sample reported more social problems than those from the community. In both men and women, problems with their spouse or partner were far more likely among general practice attenders than among community probands. Furthermore, women who consulted the general practitioners could count less often on the availability of friend confidants and had more well-defined physical disorder than their community counterparts. Results from a logistic regression analysis showed that in women (but not in men) problems in the relationship with spouse or partner increased the probability of being a general practice attender more than twofold. Physical health status did not exert a significant effect either in men or in women.

This paper compares the pathway to psychiatric care of patients contacting the South-Verona Community Psychiatrics Service (CPS) with the pathways described in other countries, using the method of the WHO cross-cultural study of pathways in psychiatric care. One hundred and sixteen South-Verona residents starting new episodes of care were traced and included in the study. The first port of call for 92% of patients was a doctor. More than one-third arrived at the CPS directly, not filtered by other carers. One-third went first to the GP and then straight to the CPS. Both the median total interval since onset of symptoms and the median interval between onset of the problem and first seeking care was 8 weeks. Patients presenting first at the two major ports of call tend to have a quite similar latency period before seeking care. Problems presented are represented mostly by depression and anxiety. The diagnosis of affective disorders occurred in more than half of the sample, followed by neurotic and somatoform disorders and schizophrenia and related disorders. The intervals after seeing the first carer are short and quite homogeneous among all patients. More than three-quarters of the patients said that they received some form of treatment for their presenting problems prior to arrival at the CPS, mostly psychopharmacotherapy with sedatives/hypnotics. These results are discussed in the light of those obtained in the WHO cross-cultural study.

Service utilization measures from the psychiatric case registers for urban South-Verona and rural Portogruaro in North East Italy for the period 1983-9 were used to identify associations with socio-demographic variables from the 1981 census in schizophrenia and related disorders as well as in all diagnoses. The patterns of service use were broadly similar, except that Portogruaro has significantly more community contacts, and has about twice the treated incidence and prevalence of schizophrenia. The census data showed that unmarried and unemployed people were more likely to live alone in the urban than in the rural area. In South-Verona the most strongly associated predictor variables, both for schizophrenia and all diagnoses, are: living alone, unemployment, percentage of the total population who are dependents and the percentage who are divorced, separated or widowed. In contrast, in Portogruaro there were no consistent associations between census and service use variables. Stepwise multiple regression models using three census predictor variables accounted for over 85% of the variance in South-Verona utilization rates. The results indicate that the strongly predictive associations previously described in England hold in urban South-Verona, but not in rural Portogruaro, and may be related to the effect of cities in clustering seriously disabled psychiatric patients in areas of low-cost housing where they live in relative social isolation.

In this paper the global design of a research project aiming at measuring expectations and satisfaction of patients, relatives, and professionals with community-based psychiatric services (CPS) in a multidimensional, sensitive, valid and reliable way is described. Some psychometric properties of two newly developed instruments, partly adapted from the Service Satisfaction Scale (SSS), the Verona Expectations for Care Scale (VECS) and the Verona Service Satisfaction Scale (VSSS), are discussed. Three groups were selected for inclusion in the study: all patients living with their families who had more than 18 contacts in the last three years, according to the South-Verona Psychiatric Case Register; the relative who had been mainly caring for the patient; and all professionals working in the South-Verona CPS for at least one year. Data on 75 patients and 76 relatives are presented and show that VECS and VSSS have good content validity and test-retest reliability in both groups. Notwithstanding some differences, patients and relatives expressed similar expectations and were mostly satisfied. The current study is the first to provide a parallel measurement of expectations and satisfaction in all three above-mentioned groups; moreover, it is the first to investigate consumers' satisfaction with a CPS organized according to the principles of the Italian Psychiatric Reform.

Specialist psychiatric services run by the Italian National Health Service are mainly hospital-based in North-Verona and community-based in South-Verona. Ninety-two GPs from both areas participated in a one-day survey of their provision of psychiatric care, and this paper focuses on socio-demographic and clinical variables associated with specialist psychiatric referral. The one-day prevalence figure for GP referral to specialist psychiatric services was 7.3% (17.6/10,000): the figures did not differ between the sexes or between the two areas. Whereas in North-Verona 49% of the patients referred were sent to the two local hospital-based public services and 51% to other agencies (mainly to private psychiatrists), in South-Verona 71% of referrals were to the community-based public service. Log-linear analysis showed that past psychiatric history, psychological presenting complaint, social problems and GPs' psychiatric diagnosis exerted positive joint main effects on GP referral to specialist psychiatric services, and that diagnosed organic illness had a negative effect in this regard. In the presence of a psychological complaint, a psychiatric diagnosis proved to be quite unimportant, so that those without a psychiatric diagnosis were just as likely to be referred as those with one. However, in the absence of a psychological complaint a GP diagnosis of depression greatly increased the risk of referral. Though the type of psychiatric service proved not to be an important determinant of GP referral to specialist psychiatric services it influenced the GPs' choice of referral agency.

The main aim of this study was to construct logistic models of emotional distress (defined as a GHQ-30 score of 6 or greater) in a community sample of 226 men and 225 women. The independent variables included were: sociodemographic characteristics, physical health status, social problems and undesirable life events. Univariate comparisons showed that in both sexes undesirable life events and social problems were associated with emotional distress; in men the presence of physical symptoms and widowed, separated or divorced status also showed such an association. Separate logistic regression models for men and women confirmed the importance of undesirable life events and social problems as predictors for emotional distress. In women there was also a significant interaction effect between the two variables on emotional distress. Sociodemographic characteristics and physical health status did not exert a statistically significant effect in these models.

Seasonal variation in suicide in Italy for the years 1969-81 has been assessed in males and females by means of harmonic analysis. Cyclical fluctuations in the number of suicides, reasonably consistent over the 13 years of the study, have been observed in both sexes. Seasonal harmonics accounted for 65.3 and 48.4% of the variance in male and female suicides respectively. While in males the only important seasonal harmonic was the first (one cycle per year), in females there was an important first harmonic and a second harmonic (two cycles per year). In both sexes the peak of the first harmonic occurred in May, while in females the subsidiary peak occurred in October-November.

The concept of 'the pathway to psychiatric care' as described by Goldberg & Huxley (1980) using a scheme of five 'levels' and four 'filters', has provided a useful framework in investigating referral processes in places where health services are organized in a way similar to the British National Health Service. Previous estimates of psychiatric morbidity at each of the levels of this model have been calculated, based upon data obtained from diverse geographical areas and over different time frames. The value of these estimates for service planning is therefore limited by the heterogeneity of the data sources. This paper provides data related to all five levels based upon the same geographical area (South-Verona, Italy) and within the same time frame (one week in 1987). The importance of studying the full spectrum of psychiatric morbidity at all levels in the same area is discussed. In particular, it is shown that the assessment of morbidity in the primary medical care setting (levels 2 and 3) and data about filters 2 and 3 can provide useful information for the evaluation of specialist services (levels 4 and 5) as well as for understanding changes in the provision of specialist care.