Is the bark worse than the bite? Additional conditions used within community treatment orders.

Aims and method: To investigate the use of additional conditions attached to community treatment orders (CTOs) and whether they influence the process of recall to hospital. We conducted a retrospective descriptive survey of the records and associated paperwork of all the CTOs started in the trust in the year from January 2010. Each CTO was followed up for 12 months. Results: A total of 65 CTOs were included in the study; 25 patients were recalled during the study and all but one of these had their CTO revoked and remained in hospital. Each patient whose CTO was revoked had experienced a relapse in their condition. Many patients had not complied with CTO conditions prior to relapsing and could potentially have been recalled earlier. Clinical implications: Our findings suggest that the breaching of additional CTO conditions does not tend to result in a patient's recall to hospital. This has implications regarding how the workings of CTOs are explained to patients and regarding the utility of additional conditions more generally

A Proposed Set of Metrics to Reduce Patient Safety Risk From Within the Anatomic Pathology Laboratory

Background: Anatomic pathology laboratory workflow consists of 3 major specimen handling processes. Among the workflow are preanalytic, analytic, and postanalytic phases that contain multistep subprocesses with great impact on patient care. A worldwide representation of experts came together to create a system of metrics, as a basis for laboratories worldwide, to help them evaluate and improve specimen handling to reduce patient safety risk. Method: Members of the Initiative for Anatomic Pathology Laboratory Patient Safety (IAPLPS) pooled their extensive expertise to generate a list of metrics highlighting processes with high and low risk for adverse patient outcomes. Results: Our group developed a universal, comprehensive list of 47 metrics for patient specimen handling in the anatomic pathology laboratory. Steps within the specimen workflow sequence are categorized as high or low risk. In general, steps associated with the potential for specimen misidentification correspond to the high-risk grouping and merit greater focus within quality management systems. Primarily workflow measures related to operational efficiency can be considered low risk. Conclusion: Our group intends to advance the widespread use of these metrics in anatomic pathology laboratories to reduce patient safety risk and improve patient care with development of best practices and interlaboratory error reporting programs

Ketamine augmentation of electroconvulsive therapy to improve neuropsychological and clinical outcomes in depression (Ketamine-ECT):A multicentre, double-blind, randomised, parallel-group, superiority trial

Summary Background The use of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is limited by concerns about its cognitive adverse effects. Preliminary evidence suggests that administering the glutamate antagonist ketamine with ECT might alleviate cognitive adverse effects and accelerate symptomatic improvement; we tested this in a randomised trial of low-dose ketamine. Methods In this multicentre, randomised, parallel-group study in 11 ECT suites serving inpatient and outpatient care settings in seven National Health Service trusts in the North of England, we recruited severely depressed patients, who were diagnosed as having unipolar or bipolar depressive episodes defined as moderate or severe by DSM-IV criteria, aged at least 18 years, and were able and willing to provide written consent to participate in the study. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to ketamine (0·5 mg/kg intravenous bolus) or saline adjunctive to the anaesthetic for the duration of their ECT course. Patients and assessment and ECT treatment teams were masked to treatment allocation, although anaesthetists administering the study medication were not. We analysed the primary outcome, Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised delayed verbal recall (HVLT-R-DR) after four ECT treatments, using a Gaussian repeated measures model in all patients receiving the first ECT treatment. In the same population, safety was assessed by adverse effect monitoring. This trial was registered with International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Number, number ISRCTN14689382. Findings Between early December, 2012, and mid-June, 2015, 628 patients were screened for eligibility, of whom 79 were randomly assigned to treatment (40 in the ketamine group vs 39 in the saline group). Ketamine (mean 5·17, SD 2·92), when compared with saline (5·54, 3·42), had no benefit on the primary outcome (HVLT-R-DR; difference in means −0·43 [95% CI −1·73 to 0·87]). 15 (45%) of 33 ketamine-treated patients compared with 10 (27%) of 37 patients receiving saline experienced at least one adverse event which included two (6%) of 33 patients who had ketamine-attributable transient psychological effects. Psychiatric adverse events were the most common in both groups (six [27%] of 22 adverse events in the ketamine group vs seven [54%] of 13 in the saline group). Interpretation No evidence of benefit for ketamine was found although the sample size used was small; however, the results excluded greater than a small to moderate benefit with 95% confidence. The results do not support the use of adjunctive low-dose ketamine in routine ECT treatment

Study protocol for the randomised controlled trial: Ketamine augmentation of ECT to improve outcomes in depression (Ketamine-ECT study)

Background: There is a robust empirical evidence base supporting the acute efficacy of electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for severe and treatment resistant depression. However, a major limitation, probably contributing to its declining use, is that ECT is associated with impairment in cognition, notably in anterograde and retrograde memory and executive function. Preclinical and preliminary human data suggests that ketamine, used either as the sole anaesthetic agent or in addition to other anaesthetics, may reduce or prevent cognitive impairment following ECT. A putative hypothesis is that ketamine, through antagonising glutamate receptors, protects from excess excitatory neurotransmitter stimulation during ECT. The primary aim of the ketamine-ECT study is to investigate whether adjunctive ketamine can attenuate the cognitive impairment caused by ECT. Its secondary aim is to examine if ketamine increases the speed of clinical improvement with ECT. Methods/Design: The ketamine ECT study is a multi-site randomised, placebo-controlled, double blind trial. It was originally planned to recruit 160 moderately to severely depressed patients who had been clinically prescribed ECT. This recruitment target was subsequently revised to 100 patients due to recruitment difficulties. Patients will be randomly allocated on a 1:1 basis to receive either adjunctive ketamine or saline in addition to standard anaesthesia for ECT. The primary neuropsychological outcome measure is anterograde verbal memory (Hopkins Verbal Learning Test-Revised delayed recall task) after 4 ECT treatments. Secondary cognitive outcomes include verbal fluency, autobiographical memory, visuospatial memory and digit span. Efficacy is assessed using observer and self-report efficacy measures of depressive symptomatology. The effects of ECT and ketamine on cortical activity during cognitive tasks will be studied in a sub-sample using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Discussion: The ketamine-ECT study aims to establish whether or not adjunctive ketamine used together with standard anaesthesia for ECT will significantly reduce the adverse cognitive effects observed after ECT. Potential efficacy benefits of increased speed of symptom improvement and a reduction in the number of ECT treatments required will also be assessed, as will safety and tolerability of adjunctive ketamine. This study will provide important evidence as to whether adjunctive ketamine is routinely indicated for ECT given for depression in routine NHS clinical practice