Functional outcomes and patient satisfaction following inpatient treatment for childhood-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders vs non-psychotic disorders in children in the United Kingdom

Hayley Galitzer; Nefeli Anagnostopoulou; Anca Alba; Jorge Gaete; Danai Dima; Marinos Kyriakopoulos

doi:10.1111/eip.12973

Functional outcomes and patient satisfaction following inpatient treatment for childhood-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders vs non-psychotic disorders in children in the United Kingdom

Early Interv Psychiatry. 2021 Apr;15(2):412-419. doi: 10.1111/eip.12973. Epub 2020 May 20.

Authors

Hayley Galitzer¹, Nefeli Anagnostopoulou¹, Anca Alba¹, Jorge Gaete^{1

2

3}, Danai Dima^{4

5}, Marinos Kyriakopoulos^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ National and Specialist Acorn Lodge Inpatient Children's Unit, Child and Adolescent Mental Health Clinical Academic Group, South London and the Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, London, UK.
² Faculty of Education, Universidad de los Andes, Santiago, Chile.
³ Millennium Nucleus to Improve the Mental Health of Adolescents and Youths, Santiago, Chile.
⁴ Department of Psychology, School of Arts and Social Sciences, City, University of London, London, UK.
⁵ Department of Neuroimaging, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.
⁶ Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King's College London, London, UK.

PMID: 32431095
DOI: 10.1111/eip.12973

Abstract

Aim: The aim of this study was to compare clinical characteristics and treatment outcomes between children with Childhood-onset schizophrenia spectrum disorders (COSS) and children with other severe non-psychotic psychiatric conditions (non-COSS), all admitted to a national mental health inpatient children's unit.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective study of all children discharged from a national children's inpatient unit in the United Kingdom, between 2009 and 2018. We compared functional and treatment outcomes and satisfaction with treatment in COSS with non-COSS in the whole sample and separately for male and female patients.

Results: A total of 211 children (55% boys) were included in the sample. The mean age on admission was 129.7 months (10.8 years; age range, 6-12).Twenty cases were diagnosed with COSS (9.5%). In the whole sample, COSS patients had significantly lower Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) scores on admission compared to non-COSS (P = .006). There was a trend towards children with COSS as a group having a longer admission (M = 194.6 days, SD = 125.4) compared to non-COSS (M = 135.8 days, SD = 86.2), (P = .053). Females with COSS seemed to have more significant differences compared to females with non-COSS, in particular, longer admissions (P = .016) and worse CGAS scores at discharge (P = .04), whilst in males, these differences seemed to be attenuated.

Conclusions: Children with COSS have lower functioning at the point of inpatient admission and possibly longer admissions, but similar satisfaction with treatment at discharge from hospital compared with non-COSS. Females with COSS may have worse functional outcomes compared to non-COSS at discharge.

Keywords: admission; children; functional outcomes; satisfaction; schizophrenia.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Child
Female
Humans
Inpatients
Male
Patient Satisfaction
Retrospective Studies
Schizophrenia* / diagnosis
Schizophrenia* / therapy
Schizophrenia, Childhood*
United Kingdom