The provision of psychiatric care in southern Italy. Results from the 'Psychiatry in Southern Italy's Services' (De PISIS) survey.
OBJECTIVE
To describe structural features, attenders' characteristics and intervention habits in a large sample of Community Mental Health Departments (CMHDs) in Southern Italy.


METHODS
1) Survey of resources and organization features of collaborating CMHDs; 2) Unreplicated registration of all attenders and of therapeutic interventions during an index week.


RESULTS
A self-selected sample of 47 CMHDs in Southern Italy recruited 3845 patients during the last week of October 1992. Participating CMHDs were serving a socially deprived and severely ill population: 45.8% of attenders had 8 years or less of formal education; only 18.9% were employed, 30.9% of diagnoses were of the schizophrenia spectrum group and 23% of the affective disorders group. Sixty-eight per cent of patients were being treated with psychotropic drugs, while only 19% received rehabilitative interventions. The activity of CMHDs were oriented more towards the control of active symptomatology than towards rehabilitation. A significantly higher proportion of patients receiving a schizophrenia-spectrum disorder diagnosis were found in contact during the index week with those CMHDs providing both residential and semiresidential (day-hospital, community center) facilities.
Unità di Psichiatria, Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri, Consorzio Mario Negri Sud Santa Maria Imbaro, L'Aquila.
S
S
Marino
L
L
Frattura
L F
LF
De Luca
M
M
De Francesco
M
M
Olivieri
B
B
Saraceno
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003156:Community Mental Health Services / Q000145:classification / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003710:Demography; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000534:rehabilitation / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D016017:Odds Ratio; D010361:Patients / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology; D013222:State Medicine / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*