Many studies report prescribing preferences for antipsychotics but few have examined what professionals would choose for themselves if they were diagnosed with schizophrenia. We asked 188 nurses, pharmacists and doctors which antipsychotic they would prefer to be prescribed.

Risperidone (n=49, 26.1%), olanzapine (n=49, 26.1%) and aripiprazole (n=35, 18.6%) were the most popular choices.

Professionals' choice was in line with the latest evidence on comparative effectiveness of atypical antipsychotics and therefore might be a sensitive indicator of the most effective antipsychotic.

To provide a picture of availability and equality of access to mental health services for older people prior to the Equality Act. In 2010, a questionnaire was sent to health commissioners in England, Scotland and Wales under a Freedom of Information request.

Overall, 132 (76%) replied. Of 11 services, 7 were either unavailable or did not provide equality of access to older people in more than a third of commissioning areas. When provided by specialist older people's mental health, services were more often considered to ensure equality.

Increasing need resulting from an ageing population is unlikely to be met in the face of current inequality. Inequality on the basis of age is the result of government policy and not the existence of specialist services for older people. Single age-inclusive services may create indirect age discrimination. Availability alone is insufficient to demonstrate equality of access. Monitoring the effects of legislation must take this into account.

My topic is the problem of drawing from psychiatry for a fiction writer. This is a subject on which I am eminently well-qualified to speak. I have written five novels and a short-story collection, all of which have dealt with minds in disorder. Two of my novels – one called Spider, the other Asylum – have been focused centrally on psychiatry and psychiatric illness, so it is about the writing of these two novels that I want to talk today.

To develop and introduce an evidence-based drug treatment protocol for clozapine-induced hypersalivation, a review of published literature relating to clozapine-induced hypersalivation and its treatment was undertaken in March 2000. The databases searched were Medline, EMBASE and PsychLit, from 1966 to the present.

This paper reviews the evidence of the benefit of using antimuscarinic agents, adrenergic antagonists and adrenergic agonists. There is alack of good-quality controlled-trials, with most papers reporting aseries of uncontrolled cases dependent on subjective measures of improvement reported by the patients. However, the published literature suggests a benefit for all of the drug categories reviewed. The most effective treatment may be acombination of terazosin and benzhexol.

Clozapine-induced hypersalivation is not only an embarrassing problem, but can be difficult to treat. An evidence-based prescribing protocol will encourage the use of those drugs found to be the most effective in treating this problem. It will also offer alternatives if acertain treatment is ineffective or intolerable.

There are no national standards to evaluate the quality of delivery of in-patient liaison psychiatry services in general hospitals in the UK. In order to benchmark our service against best international practice, we adapted quality indicators from two peer-reviewed studies from Australia and Switzerland and monitored our performance standards over a period of 6 months.

There were 145 patients assessed over the study period. We set a priori target of 90% achievement on indicators in the areas of timeliness of response to all referrals, timeliness of response to referrals following self-harm and quality of supervision of junior medical staff attaining 93.8, 87.5 and 89.6% respectively.

We demonstrated that we provided a reasonably responsive consultation–liaison service with high levels of supervision of junior staff. National bodies should develop benchmarks in this area so that services can demonstrate the quality of their service and learn from others' good practice.

To review and clarify the large number of psychophenomenological terms used to describe thought disorder. The most recent editions of the major psychiatric textbooks and medical dictionaries in the library of a London teaching hospital were used to compile a list of such terms. The various, often conflicting definitions were compared.

There were 68 terms identified. There was significant redundancy in these terms (i.e. more terms than significantly different concepts described). Different sources gave different definitions for the same terms.

The understanding of many of the terms used to describe thought disorder is poor. This is confusing for clinicians, trainees and patients.

The paper describes the establishment of a specialist forensic team providing an integrated model of forensic community psychiatric care.

A description is provided of the problems encountered in setting up and running the service and of the ways in which those problems were managed.

The integrated model has the advantage of minimising stigma, providing support and education for staff and enabling forensic expenditure to be provided for a wider group of patients and staff than would otherwise be possible.

We undertook a cross-sectional service evaluation of the reasons and extent of delay in the discharge process in an intellectual disability hospital over a 12-month period. Delays at each stage of the discharge process are also quantified in this study.

We found that discharge was delayed for 29% of patients during the study period. The majority (78.5%) was due to awaiting completion of assessment of future care needs and waiting for public funding.

Commissioners (health and social), provider trusts, regulators and community providers should consider the reasons for delay in the discharge process and adopt a whole systems approach to discharge planning. This is highly relevant in light of recommendations by the Department of Health following the Winterbourne View scandal, which has raised concern about patients staying in intellectual disability in-patient units too long and for the wrong reasons.

The aim of this literature analysis was to establish the range of doses of haloperidol decanoate effective in preventing relapse in schizophrenia. Studies reporting relapse rates in patients treated for longer than 6 months were included. Relapse rate was then plotted against dose or log dose to allow drawing of dose–response curves.

Fifteen publications reporting 13 individual studies were identified. of these, 6 studies met inclusion criteria and were analysed. Dose–response curves indicated limited effect at 25 mg/4 weeks but near maximal effect at doses of 50 mg/4 weeks. There was no clear evidence that increasing the dose above 100 mg/4 weeks provided additional benefit in preventing relapse.

The recommended dose range for haloperidol decanoate (50–300 mg/ 4 weeks) does not reflect the findings of this study. Optimally effective doses appear to be around 50–100 mg/4 weeks. The use of doses above 100 mg/4 weeks is difficult to support given data available.

The study aimed to assess the current provision of psychoeducation programmes for patients with mental illness in the UK. A postal questionnaire was sent randomly to 100 community mental health teams regarding the delivery and characteristics of psychoeducation programmes. Non-responders were contacted via telephone after 8 weeks.

The response rate was 87%. Eight services provided group psychoeducation, 40 provided individual psychoeducation within the care programme approach, and 39 did not provide any psychoeducation programme.

Patients with mental illnesses have limited access to psychoeducation in routine care. Group programmes should perhaps be more widely implemented as a relatively low-cost intervention.