Delphi consensus on the physical health of patients with schizophrenia: evaluation of the recommendations of the spanish societies of psychiatry and biological psychiatry by a panel of experts
Keywords:
Schizophrenia, Physical health,, Morbidity, Psychiatry, Intervention guidesAbstract
Introduction. Available data from scientific literature show that patients with schizophrenia have higher rates of physical comorbidity and excess mortality due to other physical pathologies. The growing interest to investigate and improve the health of these patients has led a group of Spanish experts to publish in 2008 a “Consensus on physical health of patients with schizophrenia from the Spanish Societies of Psychiatry and Biological Psychiatry” (2008 Consensus). These recommendations imply a significant change to the present model of medical attention.
Objective. To gauge the level of agreement of a group of expert psychiatrists on the clinical criteria and recommendations collected from the scientific literature and the 2008 Consensus on the physical health of patients with schizophrenia.
Method. The process involved four phases: 1) Scientific Committee established to manage the study and to define the 66-item questionnaire; 2) Panel of 15 experts in psychiatry is established; 3) Submission of questionnaire to the Expert Panel in two consecutive rounds, with an intermediate processing and sharing of results; 4) Evaluation of results, discussion and conclusions between Scientific Committee and Expert Panel.
Results. All items, as set by the Scientific Committee and aligned with the recommendations published in the 2008 Consensus, achieved consensus on agreement from the Expert Panel, except 5 items, for which most of the answers were placed in the indeterminate position rate.
Conclusions. The expert criteria shown in this study indicate a global agreement with regard to clinical criteria on the physical health of patients with schizophrenia, as well as with the present recommendations to improve the health of patients having, or at risk to have, other concomitant pathologies. The need to incorporate new intervention guidelines that facilitate a better control and improvement of the physical health of patients with schizophrenia must be disseminated in the psychiatric providers’ collectives.
