If you go here you will see a link to open the full 312-page The American Psychiatric Association Practice Guideline For The Treatment Of Patients With Schizophrenia, Third Edition which they are giving away for free.
Is anyone interested in forming a study group to read and discuss this document? It contains 24 “statements” where a group of psychiatrists have come up with the best practice (as of 2020) for various areas of practice like medications (3 statements on clozapine) and psychosocial activities like supported employment.
We could devote a topic for each of the statements and discuss a statement a week.
8 Likes
I started reading Statement 1: Assessment of Possible Schizophrenia.
Table 1: Recommended aspects of the initial psychiatric evaluation
Table 2: Suggested physical and laboratory assessments for patients with schizophrenia
Wherever they say “recommended”, they mean do it. Wherever they say “suggested” it means the benefits outweigh the harms, but it’s your choice.
It’s incredibly thorough. The assessment was unanimously recommended in the “Differences of Opinion Among Writing Group Members” section where they write:
There were no differences of opinion. The writing group voted unanimously in favor of this recommendation.
It leaves me wondering who gets this done? To do everything they recommend you would need to have a very competent psychiatrist who knew to do all these things, or even better take the family member to a university or hospital-affiliated clinic that specializes in diagnosing SMI.
2 Likes
I am interested in forming a study group with you caregiver1. That way if and when my son is once again under psychiatric care (which I am praying for although he is currently unmedicated), I will have a notion of how psychiatrists view ideal care. Could be very useful information. I will have a go at Statement 1 today.
1 Like
Sounds good @Steadfast. Hopefully we will learn some new things. I’ll create a topic for it.
1 Like
I would like to join the study group too .
1 Like
This is a great idea - and a great document! Thanks for posting info on this. I encourage everyone to get involved!
1 Like
Oh - and by the way - if you want to get some ideas from what they do in other countries - I recommend you review the Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Schizophrenia in the UK , Scotland and Canada. I’ll try to find and post the links to these documents and info here:
Full UK Guideline PDF:
https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg178/evidence/full-guideline-490503565
Scotland Guideline:
Canada:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0706743717720448
More info on Canada Guidelines: