Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T06:33:46.753Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Recovered or dead? A Swedish study of 321 persons surveyed as severely mentally ill in 1995/96 but not so ten years later

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2011

H. Arvidsson*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Gothenburg, 555 66 Göteborg, Sweden
*
*Address for correspondence: Hans Arvidsson, Komperöd 203, 444 94 Ucklum, Sweden. (Email: [email protected])

Abstract

Aim.

The aim was to follow-up a group of persons who were considered severely and persistently mentally ill (SMI) at the time of the 1995 Swedish mental health-care reform but not so ten years later.

Methods.

Surveys were conducted in 1995/96 and 2006 in an area of Sweden. Of 602 persons surveyed as SMI in 1995/96, 321 were not found to be so in a similar survey in 2006. These persons were followed up concerning death rates and causes, as well as concerning recovery and present care. Comparisons between subgroups were made using the results of interviews conducted in 1995/96.

Results.

Nineteen percent of the persons considered SMI in 1995/96 were recovered in 2006 in the sense that they no longer were considered SMI. The only variable found to predict recovery was diagnosis. Half of the persons in the sample given a diagnosis of neurosis were recovered but only 6% of those given a diagnosis of psychosis. Death rates and death causes seemed to be in line with previous research.

Conclusions.

Relatively few persons were considered recovered after ten years. Most persons in the sample were still in contact with care and services.

Type
Original Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1994). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn. (DSM-IV). APA: Washington, DC.Google Scholar
Arvidsson, H (2003). Test–retest reliability of the Swedish version of the Camberwell Assessment of Needs. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 57, 279283.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arvidsson, H (2008). The development of needs in a group of severely mentally ill. A 10-year follow-up study after the 1995 Swedish mental health care reform. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 43, 705713.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arvidsson, H (2009). Severely and persistently mentally ill – a changing group. Ten years after the 1995 Swedish mental health care reform. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 63, 355360.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Auquier, P, Lançon, C, Rouillon, F, Lader, M (2007). Mortality in schizophrenia. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 16, 13081312.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
d'Avanzo, B, La Vecchia, C, Negri, E (2003). Mortality in long-stay patients from psychiatric hospitals in Italy. Results from Qualyop Project. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 38, 385389.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Baxter, D, Appleby, L (1999). Case register study of suicide risk in mental disorders. British Journal of Psychiatry 175, 322326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Becker, T, Kilian, R (2006). Psychiatric services for people with severe mental illness across western Europe: what can be generalized from current knowledge about differences in provision, costs and outcome of mental health care? Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 113 (Suppl.), 916.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brown, S, Inskip, H, Barraclough, B (2000). Causes of excess mortality of schizophrenia. British Journal of Psychiatry 177, 212217.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Capasso, RM, Lineberry, TW, Bostwick, JM, Decker, PA, St Sauver, J (2008). Mortality in schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder: an Olmstad County, Minnesota cohort: 1950–2005. Schizophrenia Research 98, 287294.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corrigan, PW, Phelan, SM (2004). Social support and recovery in people with serious mental illnesses. Community Mental Health Journal 40, 513523.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fors, BM, Isacson, D, Bingefors, K, Widerlöv, B (2007). Mortality among persons with schizophrenia in Sweden. An epidemiological study. Nordic Journal of Psychiatry 61, 252259.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansen, V, Jacobsen, B, Arnesen, E (2001). Cause-specific mortality in psychiatric patients after deinstitutionalisation. British Journal of Psychiatry 179, 438443.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hansson, L, Björkman, T, Svensson, B (1995). The assessment of needs in psychiatric patients. Interrater reliability of the Swedish version of the Camberwell Assessment of Needs, instrument and results from a cross-sectional study. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 92, 285293.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harding, C (1988). Course types in schizophrenia: an analysis of European and American studies. Schizophrenia Bulletin 14, 633643.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Harris, EC, Barraclough, B (1999). Excess mortality of mental disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry 173, 1153.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Harrison, G, Hopper, K, Craig, T, Laska, E, Siegel, C, Wanderling, J, Dube, KC, Ganev, K, Giel, R, an der Heiden, W, Holmberg, SK, Janca, A, Lee, PWH, Leon, CA, Malhotra, S, Marsella, AJ, Nakane, Y, Sartorius, N, Shen, Y, Skoda, C, Thara, R, Tsirkin, SJ, Varma, VK, Walsh, D, Wiersma, D (2001). Recovery from psychotic illness: a 15–25 years international follow-up study. British Journal of Psychiatry 178, 506517.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hegarty, JD, Baldessarini, RJ, Tohen, M, Waternaux, C, Oepen, G (1994). One hundred years of schizophrenia: a meta-analysis of the outcome literature. American Journal of Psychiatry 151, 14091416.Google ScholarPubMed
Joukamaa, M, Heliövaara, M, Knekt, P, Aromaa, A, Raitasalo, R, Lehtinen, V (2001). Mental disorders and cause-specific mortality. British Journal of Psychiatry 179, 498502.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lambert, M, Naber, D, Schacht, A, Wagner, T, Hundemer, HP, Karow, A, Huber, CG, Suarez, D, Haro, JM, Novick, D, Dittman, RW, Schimmelmann, BG (2008). Rates and predictors of remission and recovery during 3 years in 392 never-treated patients with schizophrenia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 118, 220229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Lauronen, E, Koskinen, J, Veijola, J, Miettunen, J, Jones, PB, Fenton, WS, Isohanni, M (2005). Recovery from schizophrenic psychoses within northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 66, 375383.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Laursen, TM, Munk-Olsen, T, Nordentoft, M, Mortensen, PB (2007). Increased mortality among patients admitted with major psychiatric disorders: a register-based study comparing mortality in unipolar depressive disorder, bipolar affective disorder, schizoaffective disorder, and schizophrenia. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 68, 899907.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Markström, U (2003). The Swedish Mental Health Reform – Among Bureaucrats, Users and Pioneers (in Swedish, summary in English). Doctoral Dissertation, Umeå University. Boréa, Umeå, Sweden.Google Scholar
McCrone, P, Leese, M, Thornicroft, G, Schene, A, Knudsen, HC, Vázquez-Barquero, JL, Tansella, M, Becker, T, Chisholm, D (2000). Reliability of Camberwell Assessment of Need – European Version: Epsilon Study. British Journal of Psychiatry 177 (Suppl. 39), 3440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
National Board of Health and Welfare (1998). The First Thousand Days of the Swedish Mental Health Care Reform. The National Board on Health and Welfare: Stockholm 1998; 4.Google Scholar
National Board of Health and Welfare (1999). Welfare or Freedom of Choice? Final Report from the Evaluation of the 1995 Psychiatric Care Reform. The National Board on Health and Welfare: Stockholm 1999; 1.Google Scholar
Osborn, DP, Levy, G, Nazareth, I, Petersen, I, Islam, A, King, MB (2007). Relative risk of cardiovascular and cancer mortality in people with severe mental illness from the United Kingdom's General Practise Research Database. Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 242249.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ösby, U, Correia, N, Brandt, L, Ekbom, A, Sparén, P (2000 a). Mortality and causes of death in schizophrenia in Stockholm County, Sweden. Schizophrenia Research 45, 2128.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ösby, U, Correia, N, Brandt, L, Ekbom, A, Sparén, P (2000 b). Time trends in schizophrenia mortality in Stockholm County, Sweden: cohort study. British Medical Journal 321, 483484.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ösby, U, Correia, N, Brand, L, Ekbom, A, Sparén, P (2001). Excess mortality in bipolar and unipolar disorder in Sweden. Archives of General Psychiatry 58, 844850.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Phelan, M, Slade, M, Thornicroft, G, Dunn, G, Holloway, F, Wykes, TP, Strathdee, G, Loftus, L, McCrone, P, Hayward, P (1995). The Camberwell Assessment of Need: the validity and reliability of an instrument to assess the needs of people with severe mentally illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 167, 589595.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ramon, S, Healy, B, Renouf, N (2007). Recovery from mental illness as an emergent concept and practice in Australia and the UK. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 53, 108122.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rantanen, H, Koivisto, AM, Salokangas, RK, Helminen, M, Oja, H, Pirkola, S, Wahlbeck, K, Joukamaa, M (2009). Five-year mortality of Finnish schizophrenia patients in the era of deinstitutionalization. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 44, 135142.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Robinson, DG, Woerner, MG, McMeniman, M, Mendelowitz, A, Bilder, RM (2004). Symptomatic and functional recovery from a first episode of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry 2004, 473479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruggeri, M, Leese, M, Thornicroft, G, Bisoffi, G, Tansella, M (2000). Definitions and prevalence of severe and persistent mental illness. British Journal of Psychiatry 177, 149155.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Saha, S, Chant, D, McGrath, J (2007). A systematic review of mortality in schizophrenia: is the differential mortality gap worsening over time? Archives of General Psychiatry 64, 11231131.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schinnar, AP, Rothbad, AB, Kanter, R, Jung, YS (1990). An empirical literature review of definitions of severe and persistent mental illness. American Journal of Psychiatry 147, 16061608.Google ScholarPubMed
Slade, M, Amering, M, Oades, L (2008). Recovery: an international perspective. Epidemiologia E Psichiatria Sociale 17, 128137.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sohlman, B, Lehtinen, V (1999). Mortality among discharged patients in Finland. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 90, 102109.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stefansson, CG, Hansson, L (2001). Mental health care reform in Sweden, 1995. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 104 (Suppl.), 8288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Topor, A (2001). Managing the Contradictions -Recovery from Severe Mental Disorders. Dissertation. Department of Social work. University of Stockholm.Google Scholar
Warner, R (1985). Recovery from Schizophrenia – Psychiatry and Political Economy. Routledge and Kegan: New York.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (1996). ICD-10. International Classification of Diseases and Health related Problems, Tenth Revision. World Health Organisation: Geneva.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation (2001). The World Health Report 2001. Mental Health: New Understanding, New Hope. World Health Organisation: Geneva.Google Scholar
Young, SL, Ensing, DS (1999). Exploring recovery from the perspective of people with psychiatric disabilities. Psychiatric Rehabilitation Journal 22, 219231.CrossRefGoogle Scholar