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This study aims to investigate the effectiveness and outcomes of Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) compared to Section 17 leave in the care of psychotic patients in the UK. The research will analyze readmission rates, medication compliance, clinical and social outcomes, patient characteristics, treatment patterns, ethical challenges, and cost-effectiveness. Participants will be involuntary inpatients who meet the inclusion criteria and will be randomized to either CTO or Section 17 leave. The study will be conducted by a research team and involve clinical teams in multiple locations. Equipoise will be maintained throughout the trial to ensure unbiased results. The study structure includes patient assessment, concealed stratified randomization, follow-up assessments, and data collection. The study aims to provide evidence-based recommendations on the use of CTOs in compulsory care.
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Randomisation of section 3 psychosis patients to CTO or section 17 leave (not CTO)
UK Compulsory care from November 2008 Two possibilities: CTOs or Section 17 leave of absence CTO six months, renewable twelve months Can be discharged at any time Section 17 reviewed weekly Sec 17 provisions have not been changed (other than to ‘consider’ the appropriateness of CTOs)
Legal issues • Anticipation is that CTOs will be more enduring than sec 17 leave – months not weeks but not sure • Legal opinion is that CTO not more restrictive than section 17 • Is ‘increased deprivation of liberty’ (CTO) balanced by better clinical outcomes?
Research questions and aims Do CTOs reduce the rate and duration of readmission to hospital for ‘revolving door’ psychotic patients’? (Are CTOs more enduring than section 17 leave?) Do CTOs improve compliance with anti-psychotic medication? Do CTOs improve clinical and social outcomes, reported quality of life and satisfaction with services? Baseline patient characteristics associated with outcome Treatment patterns associated with outcome In-depth experiences of patients and families Ethical and practical challenges experienced by staff Cost effectiveness of CTOs
Inclusion criteria • Psychotic diagnosis • Current involuntary inpatient • on treatment section (‘section’ 3 or 37) • Not on section 17 leave > 4 weeks • No restrictions on section • Considered suitable for CTO by team • Able to give informed consent to research (semi-structured assessment of capacity)
North Carolina secondary analyses Swartz et al, 1999 No CTO, <180 days blue, >180 days CTO green. < 3 > clinical contacts per month Results Mean admissions down 57%, occupancy down 20 days (73% and 28 days for schizophrenia)
Clinical requirements Remain in the allocated treatment arm for 12 months Not on CTO for 12 months in control arm (‘inoculated’) I.E same management even after readmission. Section 17 as transition to voluntary care not ersatz CTO ‘long-leash’ Offer weekly clinical contact/support (minimum X2 per month) Good standard clinical practice Confirmed by North Carolina Principle of reciprocity Clinical decision making otherwise unconstrained
How it works in practice: • OCTET Team • R&D approval, research passports and honorary contracts etc for Research Assistants • We identify patients • keep contact with you or organise ‘Ward sweeps’ (us or local CSOs) • Patients assessed,randomised and followed up by us • Clinical team • Understand the study, acknowledge equipoise • Want to co-operate and agree to randomisation of (all) CTO candidates.
Study structure • Team agrees to be involved • We identify involuntary inpatients (ongoing) • (considered suitable for CTO) • Patient assessed and consented • Concealed, stratified Randomisation (50/50) • Follow-up at 7/12 and 13/12 • Primary outcome readmission • One hour interview with structured assessments • Clinical, social, satisfaction, Health Economics data
Equipoise • Clinical uncertainty • Uncertainty lies in the evidence not in the individual clinical decision • We do not know with any certainty although we may ‘feel’ certain in an individual case • A rational, not an emotional, condition • Needs to be sustained throughout the trial • Not reduced by individual relapses
The conversion • Hardly a single word in favour of CTOs in evidence from psychiatrists to Parliamentary scrutiny committee • Now • “it clearly works”, • “I’ve seen it with my own eyes”, • “It would be unethical to randomise”
Can you see it with your own eyes? Of course you can’t. The outcomes are distal and probabilistic!
Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus (c. 2000 BCE). Instruction for a dislocation of the mandible. “ If you examine a man having a dislocation [wenekh] in his mandible [aret] and you find his mouth open and his mouth does not close for him, you then place your finger[s] [? thumb] on the back of the two rami of the mandible inside his mouth, your two claws [groups of fingers] under his chin, you cause them [i.e. the two mandibles] to fall so they lie in their [correct] place! Thou shalt then say, concerning him, one suffering from a dislocation of his two mandibles, an ailment which I will treat. You should then bind it with imru and honey every day until he recovers.”
Psychiatry has nothing to be compacent about here We’ve made lots of mistakes when we ‘saw with our own eyes’
Continued into the 1970s First medical treatment convincingly disproved by an RCT and then eventually abandoned. Insulin coma treatment
8 from 4 trusts in the East Midlands 1 from 1 trust in the North West 2 from 1 trust in the East of England 15 from 3 trusts in the West Midlands Current N = 186 (target 300) 38 from 8 trusts in London 5 from 1 trust in the South West 31 from 5 trusts in the South East
Meet the team Goodbye Sarah and Naomi Hello Riti, Lisa and Aingus OCTET hotline: 01865 613171 Email: OCTET@psych.ox.ac.uk Lindsey and Caroline Claire, Helen, Sarah, Naomi
Final conclusion • A well conducted RCT of CTOs is still needed • OCTET is carefully thought through and an opportunity unlikely to be repeated • May generate the evidence and help restore psychiatry’s image.