Clinical research in Mental Health: the pacients'point of view on the experience of hearing voices

This is a qualitative clinical research on the hearing voices experience, based on the analysis of a hearing-voices group functioning in a Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS). We verified that the practice of patients narratives construction about their hearing voices experiences, in a group context, provides the raise of participants engagement in coping with the challenges of the mental illness process and helping them to create alternative ways that gives support to daily life. Consequently, the group assures a proficuous way of, collectively, developing singular solutions and creating a voice-hearing network dedicated to an experience essentially characterized as not passible for being shareable.Trata-se de pesquisa clínica acerca da experiência de ouvir vozes, centrada na análise do funcionamento de um grupo de ouvidores de vozes em um Centro de Atenção Psicossocial (CAPS). Verificamos que o exercício de construção de narrativas sobre o ouvir vozes aplicado em um dispositivo grupal produz como efeito um aumento do engajamento dos participantes nos desafios decorrentes de seu adoecimento, auxiliando na criação de alternativas que promovam a sustentação do cotidiano. O grupo se assevera, consequentemente, como um meio profícuo de avançar, coletivamente, na elaboração de soluções singulares e de criar uma comunidade de trabalho voltada para uma experiência que se caracteriza essencialmente por não ser passível de ser compartilhada.838

Clinical stability, diagnosis and catchment area: the patients of a university-based psychiatric outpatient clinic

ABSTRACT Objective This study aimed to characterize the patients assisted at the general outpatient clinic of the Psychiatry Institute of Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (IPUB-UFRJ) and to assess these patients’ clinical stability. Methods This cross-sectional study collected information using a structured questionnaire filled in by the patient’s physician. The questionnaire, specifically developed for this purpose, included sociodemographic data; the dwelling area; psychiatric diagnosis according to ICD-10; clinical stability assessment by means of five psychiatric instability criteria and the physician’s global clinical impression over the six previous months. Clinical stability was defined as a negative answer to all five pre-defined instability criteria. Results Overall, 1,447 questionnaires were filled in. The sample was composed of 824 (57%) women; with an average age of 49 years; 1,104 (76.3%) patients lived in the city of Rio de Janeiro and 343 (23.7%) lived outside the city; 983 (67.9%) patients had a severe mental disorder (SMD) diagnosis and 946 (65.3%) patients were considered stable. Statistically, the clinical stability by dwelling area did not differ. The most frequent clinical instability criterion was “exacerbation or emergence of acute manifestations of the disease”. Conclusion The major part of the patients displayed a SMD and was considered clinically stable