Antipsychotic management in primary care: qualitative study (Ver. 3.0)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Antipsychotic management for patients in primary care: qualitative analysis of stakeholder experiences and potential barriers to integrated care.
IRAS ID
311503
Contact name
Alan Woodall
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Powys Teaching Health Board
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Improving health outcomes for Welsh patients with serious mental illness who take antipsychotic medication is vital. They have a reduced life expectancy of 20 years and increased co-morbidity risk secondary to antipsychotics from metabolic syndromes including diabetes, obesity and cardiac disease. Due to pressures on psychiatric services, an estimated 31% of U.K. patients taking antipsychotics are discharged to GP-only care. However, 90% of GPs feel under-skilled to switch antipsychotics to reduce metabolic risk, and thus ‘stable’ patients (approximately 200,000 U.K patients based on an estimated 0.3% of the population) are particularly vulnerable. Re-referral for psychiatric review is inconsistent, and doctors may be reluctant to alter antipsychotics for these patients. This patient group thus fall between primary and secondary care, and little is known about their long-term health outcomes.
The research project will:
1. Confirm the prevalence and sociodemographics of these patients via cross-sectional surveys.
2. Identify whether these patients are at increased risk of adverse outcomes due to lack of specialist follow-up compared with patients remaining under psychiatric care and matched patients not taking antipsychotics.
3. Identify (via qualitative analyses from interviews with patients and healthcare and commissioning/policy development professionals) barriers for patients, GPs, mental health professionals and commissioners inhibiting integrated care, and inform service redesign policies.REC name
Wales REC 6
REC reference
22/WA/0173
Date of REC Opinion
17 Jun 2022
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion