NCT04511663

The Effectiveness of Assertive Community Treatment on Schizophrenic Patients

The Effectiveness of a 2-year Assertive Community Treatment on Schizophrenic Patients in an Urban District of Shanghai

• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 198 (actual)
• Sponsor: Shanghai Mental Health Center · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 50 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Not accepted

Summary

Assertive community treatment (ACT) is a community-based, patient-centered, and rehabilitation-oriented model based on multidisciplinary service teams. It has been proved to be suitable for the management of patients with severe mental disorder in the community. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of ACT in an urban district of Shanghai with a larger sample size and a 24-month duration of follow up. We hypothesized that patients assigned into ACT would show better improvement in psychiatric symptoms and social function.

Detailed description

Assertive community treatment (ACT) is a community-based, patient-centered, and rehabilitation-oriented model based on multidisciplinary service teams. It has been proved to be suitable for the management of patients with severe mental disorder in the community. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effectiveness of ACT in an urban district of Shanghai with a larger sample size and a 24-month duration of follow up. We hypothesized that patients assigned into ACT would show better improvement in psychiatric symptoms and social function.The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board in Shanghai Mental Health Center. Aim of the study: 1.1 To explore the effectiveness of assertive community treatment in patients with schizophrenia. 1.2 The patients were followed up for 24 months to explore the duration of ACT. Introduction of the study: Patients who previously diagnosed as schizophrenia according to International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision (ICD-10) in the psychiatric hospitals would receive basic public health service in the community. The selected schizophrenic patients were randomly assigned into intervention group and control group by a computer randomization algorithm. During the following 2 years, the control group received basic public health services in the community while the intervention group received ACT. Clinical assessments were conducted at baseline and every 6 months till the end of the 2-year study. A single-blind method was used, in which all the assessments were independently completed by trained psychiatrists who didn't know the grouping.The Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) and the Personal and Social Performance Scale (PSP) were measured at baseline and every 6 months during the study.

Conditions

• Schizophrenia

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
COMBINATION_PRODUCT	Assertive community treatment	The intervention team consisted of psychiatrists, nurses, clinical psychologists, social workers, rehabilitation teachers. The specific services provided by the team include individual service plan. Each patient got a comprehensive evaluation within one month to establish treatment goals and individual intervention plan, rehabilitation training, family intervention peer support group, individual psychological counseling and crisis intervention.
COMBINATION_PRODUCT	Basic public health services.	The control group received regular medical follow-up including symptom and medication evaluation, social function evaluation and physical examination after hospital discharge. The frequency was once a quarter.

Timeline

• Start date: 2017-07-01
• Primary completion: 2019-09-18
• Completion: 2019-12-31
• First posted: 2020-08-13
• Last updated: 2020-08-13

Locations

1 site across 1 country: China