Global Psychiatrists Unite To Improve Services In Mental Health

Thirty seven medical experts in psychiatry from across the
world have called on the medical community to take urgent action to optimize
services for people with a diagnosis of severe mental illness such as
schizophrenia or bipolar disorder(i).


Professor W. Wolfgang Fleischhacker, principal author of
Comorbid Somatic Illnesses in Patients with Severe Mental Disorders:
Clinical, Policy, and Research Challenges which was published in the Journal
of Clinical Psychiatry, together with leading physicians, confirmed that
compared to the general public there were serious inequalities in the
physical health of patients with severe mental illness and a shorter life
expectancy, due primarily to cardiovascular disease.


Professor Fleischhacker said: "The prevalence of important
risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as diabetes and obesity, is
about 1.5 to 3.5 times higher in adults with schizophrenia than in the
general population."


One of the key problems which contributed to neglecting the
physical health of these patients, and identified by Professor Fleischhacker
and colleagues in their paper, included stigmatization of mental illness.
This led to widespread discrimination, including insufficient health care
provision; suboptimal integration of general health and psychiatric care
services and a lack of consensus as to which health care professional should
be responsible for the prevention management of physical ill health.


Sigrid Steffen, President of the European Federation of
Associations of Families of People with Mental Illness (EUFAMI) said: "For
the past number of years, families have become aware of the situation and are very concerned about these additional health dangers. We believe that they
have a very serious impact on our loved ones. The release of this article is
a welcome development as it means that the issues are finally being treated
as important."



The paper sets out a five-step plan to address these
inequalities. The focus is on: taking responsibility for the patient - by the
primary responsible treating physician; education and training - to increase
general medical education in psychiatric training and increase psychiatric
education in general medical training; access to services - by implementing
measures such as improving access to general physical healthcare, appropriate
insurance coverage and general physical healthcare within psychiatric
institutions and systems of mental health care; collaboration with colleagues
in other disciplines - to develop comprehensive educations efforts aimed at
improving the knowledge and skills of mental health care providers; and more
research into comorbidities seen in severe mental disorders.















The article is based on presentations and discussions during
two international meetings in 2006 that were funded by an independent
educational grant from Pfizer Inc., New York, N.Y.


List of Authors


Dr Wolfgang Fleischhacker, Medical University Innsbruck, Austria


Dr Marcelo Cetkovich-Bakmas, the Department of Psychiatry,

Institute of Cognitive Neurology (INECO), and the Department of Psychiatry,

Institute of Neurosciences, Favaloro Foundation, Buenos Aires, Argentina


Dr Marc De Hert, University Psychiatric Center, Catholic University

Leuven, Belgium


Dr Charles Hennekens, the Department of Clinical Sciences and

Medical Education, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton


Dr Martin Lambert, the Department for Psychiatry and

Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany


Dr Stefan Leucht, the Department for Psychiatry and

Psychotherapy, Technische Universitat Munchen, Munich, Germany


Dr Mario Maj, The Department of Psychiatry, University of Naples, Italy


Dr Roger McIntyre, Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit,

University Health Network, Toronto, Canada


Dr Dieter Naber, the Department for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy,

University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany


Dr John Newcomber, the Department of Psychiatry, Psychology,

and Medicine and the Center for Clinical Studies, Washinton University School
of Medicine, St.Louis, MO


Dr Mark Olfson, the Department of Psychiatry Columbia University,

New York (USA)


Dr Urban Osby, Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska

Institutet, Sweden


Dr Norman Sartorius, Association for Improvement of Mental

Health Programmes, Geneva, Switzerland


Dr Jeffrey Lieberman, the Department of Psychiatry, College of

Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York


About EUFAMI


EUFAMI, the European Federation of Associations of Families of
People with mental illness, is the representative body for family and carer
associations throughout Europe, promoting the interests and wellbeing of
people with mental illness and their families and carers. It was founded in
1992 under Belgian law and is a member led federation. EUFAMI has 48 national
and regional associations as members from 28 countries. EUFAMI is working
with major European organizations, such as the EU and the World Health
Organization (WHO) to help improve the quality of life of persons affected by
mental illness.


(i) Fleischhacker WW et al. Comorbid Somatic Illness in Patients with Severe Mental Disorders: Clinical, Policy and Research Challenges.
J Clin Psychiatry. 2008;69 (4):514-519.


Medizinische Universität Innsbruck