Abstract
Patients with a severe mental illness die 13 to 30 year earlier than the general population. This is often caused by an unhealthy lifestyle along with the psychiatric disease, but also by side effects of medication. Therefore, it is important to look at physical complaints and medication use in psychiatric patients too.
In this thesis it is shown that there is quite a lot to be gained there. By regular physical examination, blood tests and medication interviews, the risks can be better mapped and decreased and health care can be improved.
In the north of the Netherlands, a system was developed, in which psychiatric patients are regularly monitored during their outpatient treatment: ‘Monitoring Outcomes of psychiatric Pharmacotherapy’ (MOPHAR). MOPHAR is a new method to improve standard care of individual patients and also research on the physical effects of medication use.
The first results show that with MOPHAR, mental health care professionals of GGZ Drenthe gain better insight into the physical health of their patients. Furthermore, almost half of the patients turn out to have metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Thanks to the information, patients can be treated to minimize this risk.
In the last part of the thesis, some individual measurements were investigated in more detail, such as the heart scan. We investigated with which patients it seems useful to make a heart scan around the start of antidepressants, to prevent severe cardiac arrhythmia. Using this kind of research, measurements in MOPHAR can be further improved and adjusted to individual patients.
In this thesis it is shown that there is quite a lot to be gained there. By regular physical examination, blood tests and medication interviews, the risks can be better mapped and decreased and health care can be improved.
In the north of the Netherlands, a system was developed, in which psychiatric patients are regularly monitored during their outpatient treatment: ‘Monitoring Outcomes of psychiatric Pharmacotherapy’ (MOPHAR). MOPHAR is a new method to improve standard care of individual patients and also research on the physical effects of medication use.
The first results show that with MOPHAR, mental health care professionals of GGZ Drenthe gain better insight into the physical health of their patients. Furthermore, almost half of the patients turn out to have metabolic syndrome, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Thanks to the information, patients can be treated to minimize this risk.
In the last part of the thesis, some individual measurements were investigated in more detail, such as the heart scan. We investigated with which patients it seems useful to make a heart scan around the start of antidepressants, to prevent severe cardiac arrhythmia. Using this kind of research, measurements in MOPHAR can be further improved and adjusted to individual patients.
| Original language | English |
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| Qualification | Doctor of Philosophy |
| Awarding Institution |
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| Supervisors/Advisors |
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| Award date | 30-Nov-2018 |
| Place of Publication | [Groningen] |
| Publisher | |
| Print ISBNs | 978-94-034-1060-9 |
| Electronic ISBNs | 978-94-034-1059-3 |
| Publication status | Published - 2018 |