title: The goals and method of the Andalusian Case Register for Schizophrenia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Psychiatric case registers have been acknowledged as a valuable source of data, a long time ago. However, a growing interest exists in data on service utilization by patients belonging to groups with a related diagnosis to enable adequate planning of health resources.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aims of the Andalusian Case Register for Schizophrenia are to determine the prevalence of schizophrenia of those cared for by the public network of mental health services and to describe their pattern of care.
  
  
  METHODS
  Cases included on the Register are those persons resident in South Granada area with a diagnosis of schizophrenia and related disorders. The agencies which sent the information to the Register are all the mental health facilities in the catchment area.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The Register is a flexible instrument to use for epidemiological research and mental health care planning.
authors: Department of Psychiatry, University of Granada, Spain. bmoreno@hsc.sas.cica.es
authors: Berta Moreno
authors: BM
authors: Küstner
authors: Carmen Rosales
authors: CR
authors: Varo
authors: Francisco Torres
authors: FT
authors: González
mesh_terms: D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D006285:Health Planning; D006801:Humans; D008605:Mental Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D009937:Organizational Objectives; D015995:Prevalence; D011635:Public Health Administration; D012042:Registries; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology