TY - JOUR PY - 2018// TI - A survey of recognition and treatment of at-risk mental state by Japanese psychiatrists JO - Psychiatry and the Clinical Neurosciences A1 - Tsujino, Naohisa A1 - Tagata, Hiromi A1 - Baba, Yoko A1 - Kojima, Akiko A1 - Yamaguchi, Taiju A1 - Katagiri, Naoyuki A1 - Nemoto, Takahiro A1 - Mizuno, Masafumi SP - 391 EP - 398 VL - 72 IS - 6 N2 - AIM: The importance of early intervention in psychiatry is widely recognised among psychiatrists. However, it is unknown whether precise knowledge of at-risk mental state has been disseminated. With this survey, we aimed to reveal how Japanese psychiatrists diagnosed patients with at-risk mental state and prescribed treatment strategies for them.

METHODS: Using fictional case vignettes, we conducted a questionnaire survey of psychiatrists (n = 1,399) who worked in Tokyo. We mailed study documents to all eligible participants in November 2015 with a requested return date in December.

RESULTS: Two hundred and sixty (19.3%) psychiatrists responded to the survey. Their correct diagnosis rates for the at-risk mental state vignettes were low (14.6% for the vignette describing at-risk mental state with attenuated positive symptom syndrome and 13.1% for the vignette describing at-risk mental state with brief intermittent psychotic syndrome). Many psychiatrists selected pharmacotherapy and antipsychotics to treat the at-risk mental state vignettes. The psychiatrists who correctly diagnosed the at-risk mental state vignettes had significantly fewer years of clinical psychiatric experience than did those who diagnosed them as non- at-risk mental state (12.5 years vs 22.7 years for the vignette describing at-risk mental state with attenuated positive symptom syndrome, p < 0.01; 14.3 years vs 22.2 years for the vignette describing at-risk mental state with brief intermittent psychotic syndrome, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION: This study suggested that precise knowledge of at-risk mental state has not been disseminated among Japanese psychiatrists.

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Language: en

LA - en SN - 1323-1316 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/pcn.12647 ID - ref1 ER -