title: To what extent are psychiatrists aware of the comorbid somatic illnesses of their patients with serious mental illnesses? - a cross-sectional secondary data analysis.
abstract: Somatic comorbidities are a serious problem in patients with severe mental illnesses. These comorbidities often remain undiagnosed for a long time. In Germany, physicians are not allowed to access patients' health insurance data and do not have routine access to documentation from other providers of health care. Against this background, the objective of this article was to investigate psychiatrists' knowledge of relevant somatic comorbidities in their patients with severe mental illnesses.
  
  
  
  Cross-sectional secondary data analysis was performed using primary data from a prospective study evaluating a model of integrated care of patients with serious mental illnesses. The primary data were linked with claims data from health insurers. Patients' diagnoses were derived on the basis of the ICD-10 and the Anatomical Therapeutic Chemical (ATC) classification system. Diabetes, hypertension, coronary artery disease (CAD), hyperlipidaemia, glaucoma, osteoporosis, polyarthritis and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) were selected for evaluation. We compared the number of diagnoses reported in the psychiatrists' clinical report forms with those in the health insurance data.
  
  
  
  The study evaluated records from 1,195 patients with severe mental illnesses. The frequency of documentation of hypertension ranged from 21% in claims data to 4% in psychiatrists' documentation, for COPD from 12 to 0%, respectively, and for diabetes from 7 to 2%, respectively. The percentage of diagnoses deduced from claims data but not documented by psychiatrists ranged from 68% for diabetes and 83% for hypertension, to 90% for CAD to 98% for COPD.
  
  
  
  The majority of psychiatrists participating in the integrated care programme were insufficiently aware of the somatic comorbidities of their patients. We support allowing physicians to access patients' entire medical records to increase their knowledge of patients' medical histories and, consequently, to increase the safety and quality of care.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Luisenstrasse 57, 10117, Berlin, Germany. christina.dornquast@charite.de.
authors.forename: Christina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Dornquast
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Luisenstrasse 57, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Juliane
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Tomzik
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Luisenstrasse 57, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Reinhold
authors.affiliation: IVPNetworks GmbH, Lübecker Str. 126, 22087, Hamburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walle
authors.affiliation: PIBB GmbH & Co. KG - Psychiatrie Initiative Berlin Brandenburg, Tegeler Weg 4, 10589, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mönter
authors.affiliation: Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and Health Economics, Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Luisenstrasse 57, 10117, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Berghöfer
mesh_terms: D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006302:Health Services Research; D006801:Humans; D007345:Insurance Claim Review; D007348:Insurance, Health / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D011570:Psychiatry; D013001:Somatoform Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Claims data; Mental disorders; Secondary data analysis; Somatic comorbidity