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Background: Health services research is of increasing importance in current psychiatry. Therefore, large datasets and aggregation of data generated by electronic routine documentation due to legal, financial, or administrative purposes play an important role. However, paper-based routine documentation is still of interest. It remains relevant in less developed health care systems, in emergency settings, and in long-term retrospective and historical studies. Whereas studies examining the reliability of electronic routine documentation support the application of routine data for research purposes, our knowledge regarding reliability of paper-based routine documentation is still very sparse. Methods: Basic documentation (BADO) was completed on paper forms and digitalized manually for all inpatients of the Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany, treated within the time period from 1998 to 2006. Four hundred twelve cases of first-episode psychosis patients were chosen for comparison with clinical data from paper-based patient files. The percentage of missing information, the percentage of correct classifications, sensitivity, and positive predictive value were calculated for all applicable variables. Results: In eight cases (1.9%), a BADO form was available, but was not filled in. In 37 cases (7.0%), the patient files were lost and could not be obtained from the centralized archive. Routine data were available for all other cases in 20 (58.8%) of the examined 34 variables, and the percentage of missing data for the remaining variables ranged between 0.3% and 22.9%, with only the variables education and suicidality during treatment having more than 5% missing data. In general, the overall rate of correct classifications was high, with a median percentage of 86.4% to 99.7% for the examined variables. Sensitivity was above 75% for eight and <75% but above 50% for six of the examined 17 variables. Values for the positive predictive value were above 75% for nine and <75% but above 50% for three variables. Conclusion: In summary, paper-based routine documentation reaches acceptable reliability, but this is dependent on the chosen documentation categories and variables. Based on the present findings, paper-based routine documentation can indeed be used for quality management, organizational development, and health services research. Its limitations, however, have to be kept in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Psychotic-like symptoms are found in a subgroup of borderline patients (BPD). Reported prevalence is heterogeneous (up to 50% affected). Investigations in Germany have not been conducted so far. Furthermore, the precise phenomenology of the psychotic symptoms and the effects on suicidal behavior and the use of inpatient psychiatric treatment are unclear., Objectives: The aim of the study was to investigate prevalence rates and phenomenology of psychotic-like symptoms. Associations between the latter and suicidality as well as the use of inpatient psychiatric treatment were examined. Further influencing factors were taking into account., Methods: Psychotic-like symptoms were assessed with the Structured Clinical Interview-I in 95 BPD patients. To investigate the associations between psychotic-like symptoms and suicidality as well as the use of inpatient psychiatric treatment, correlation and regression analyzes were calculated, considering severity of PTSD, BPD and depression., Results: 36% of the patients reported alterations of perception and 21% delusions, both multiform and long lasting. The number of suicide attempts was associated with delusions, alterations of perception and severity of PTSD, BPS, and depression. Only delusions and severity of PTSD explained together 25.8% of the variance for the prediction of the number of suicide attempts. Age of initial hospitalization showed fewer and number of hospitalizations no associations at all., Discussion: Psychotic-like symptoms should not be trivialized, which may happen by using terms such as pseudo-hallucinations or transient paranoid ideas, and may be particularly associated with suicidal tendencies complicating the clinical course., Competing Interests: Die Autoren geben an, dass kein Interessenkonflikt besteht., (© Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.)