Do Mental Health Outpatient Services Meet Users' Needs? Trial to Identify Factors Associated with Higher Needs for Care.

The study was conducted to investigate the extent to which services meet patients' needs and identify the factors associated with higher needs. 174 outpatients were assessed using CANSAS, BPRS and GSDS. The total number of unmet needs in persons with psychotic, eating, personality and affective disorders was higher than in patients with anxiety disorders. Being single, positive symptoms, depression/anxiety, hospitalizations and high social disability accounted for 50 % of the variance in level of unmet need. Persons with eating and personality disorders reported similar level of unmet needs to those with psychotic and affective disorders. The best correlates of unmet needs were depression/anxiety and social disability.

Tuning of ferromagnetic spin interactions in polymeric aromatic amines via modification of their π-conjugated system.

Polyarylamine containing meta-para-para-aniline units in the main chain and meta-para-aniline units in the pendant chains was synthesized. The polymer can be oxidized to radical cations in chemical or electrochemical ways. The presence of meta-phenylenes in the polymer chemical structure allows for the ferromagnetic coupling of electronic spins, which leads to the formation of high spin states. Detailed pulsed-EPR study indicates that the S = 2 spin state was reached for the best oxidation level. Quantitative magnetization measurements reveal that the doped polymer contains mainly S = 2 spin states and a fraction of S = 3/2 spin states. The efficiency of the oxidation was determined to be 74%. To the best of our knowledge, this polymer is the first example of a linear doped polyarylamine combining such high spin states with high doping efficiency.

[Needs of persons with mental disorders--definitions and literature review]. / Potrzeby osób z zaburzeniami psychicznymi--definicje, przeglad badan.

Failure of the deinstitutionalization process and a tendency of limitating health care costs on the basis of evidence based medicine initiated planning mental health services according to the clients' needs. Defining needs is difficult due to the complexity of the concept ofneeds, so numerous definitions of needs have been proposed. In the health care context a need is most often regarded as "the lack of health/wellbeing or the lack of access to care". Many clinical and population-based studies on needs were conducted in England and other well-developed countries. According to their results the most important are unmet needs, which correlate with unemployment, single status, low quality of life, low satisfaction with services and high social disability scores. Assessment of needs becomes a part of routine clinical practice and evaluation of mental health services. Results of such an assessment enables to fit the therapy and rehabilitation to the individual patient's needs which in consequence leads to a better therapeutic response and lower social disability. First Polish studies on needs of persons with different mental disorders indicate the social needs (company, intimate relationship and sexual expression) as the most often unmet from patient's point of view.

[CANSAS--Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule and other needs of persons with mental disorders assessment tools]. / CANSAS--Krótka Ocena Potrzeb Camberwell oraz inne narzedzia oceny potrzeb osób z zaburzeniami psychicznymi.

According to the new tendency of planning and developing mental health services in response to the individual needs, many tools assessing needs of persons with mental disorders were created during last few years. This paper presents some of them, with concentration on the Camberwell Assessment of Need Short Appraisal Schedule (CANSAS). The aim of CANSAS is to identify patient's needs, thus the tool can be a part of routine clinical practice and research, as well as a component of service evaluation. Because "need" is a subjective concept, CANSAS incorporates separately the views of both users and staff about needs. The tool was developed in the Institute of Psychiatry King's College in London and is now successfully used in many countries all over the world. It has been also translated into Polish and used in the first Polish studies on the needs of persons with mental disorders.

[Coercion in the treatment of anorexia nervosa]. / Problem przymusu w leczeniu jadlowstr tu psychicznego.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a complex disorder of unclear aetiology, nowadays one of the most serious chronic diseases of adolescent girls and young women. Severe weight loss and associated behaviours may endanger anorexic patients' lives. A characteristic for the disorder the reluctance in accepting treatment can lead in such situations to the necessity of involuntary treatment. The authors have presented indications for hospitalization as well as have discussed consequences, short- and longterm effectiveness of coercion measures in therapy of anorexia. The necessity of further investigations on this problem has been stresssed, particulary connected with good prognosis in the involuntary treatment. The lack of one-valued legal bases for involuntary treatment of anorexia in polish legislation has been mentioned as well as the lack of proper medical outposts providing them complex treatment.

[Does contemporary pharmacotherapy limit coercion in psychiatry? Preliminary results]. / Czy wspólczesna farmakoterapia ogranicza stosowanie przymusu w psychiatrii? Wyniki badania pilotazowego.

AIM: The goal of the present study was to examine whether contemporary psychopharmacotherapy (atypic neuroleptics) can have an impact on the patient's compliance and limit coercion (involuntary admission to hospital, coercive measures). METHOD: 71 adult inpatients with diagnoses of the schizophrenia spectrum (F20 group according to ICD-10) admitted to psychiatric hospital were observed. 41 of them were treated with atypic neuroleptics before hospitalization and 30 with typical ones. Data about their pharmacotherapy before hospitalization, compliance, history of disease and coercion used during hospitalization were gathered and analysed by means of chi square Pearson's and Mann-Whitney's tests. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in non-compliance, the type of admission to hospital and frequency of coercion measures used during hospitalization between groups of patients receiving atypic and typical antipsychotics. However, the group with atypic neurolepitics was nearly significantly more adherent to therapy than the typical ones. CONCLUSIONS: Results of the study did not confirm the impact of atypic neuroleptics on compliance and coercion connected with admission to hospital. A long-term study with an increased number of patients is needed to confirm the results of this study.