TREAT Evaluation
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Determining the effectiveness of TREAT (Treatment REview and Assessment Team) in treating resistant schizophrenia
IRAS ID
118320
Contact name
Oliver Howes
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Kings college London
Research summary
One in three patients with schizophrenia has a treatment resistant illness. Clozapine is the only drug treatment licensed for patients with treatment resistant schizophrenia. However, there are long delays in starting clozapine in those treatment resistant patients who do receive it: a study at The Maudsley in 2003 found the mean delay was 5 years. There are several factors contributing to this delay: it requires a pre-initiation assessment, a complex titration and a monitoring regime during initiation. Study findings indicate that psychiatrists report a lack of resources and guidance in managing the assessment and initiation of clozapine, a lack of guidance in how to recognise and manage benign ethinic neutropenia, and a lack of resources to accomplish clozapine initiation - all of which leads to a delay in treatment. The TREAT service aims to decrease the time delay in treatment by providing a service to assess and treat patients with treatment resistant schizophrenia, thus obviating these problems. This study aims to determine the effectiveness of the TREAT Service in reducing delays in treating treatment resistant schizophrenia. Additionally it seeks to determine the extent of clozapine under-use in patients from ethnic minority groups and the extent to which this is due to benign ethnic neutropenia. To do this, patients will be recruited from the TREAT service in the South London and Maudsley NHS trust. A case control design will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of this service over 3 years. The controls will be recruited from boroughs without access to the service. To allow TREAT to be evaluated, participants will complete standardised interviews to assess their symptoms and questionnaires to assess their experience of the service.
REC name
London - Brent Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
13/LO/0538
Date of REC Opinion
31 May 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion