Per Bech:  Measurement-based care in mental disorders
New York, Springer 2016 (93 pages)
Reviewed by Per Bech

INFORMATION AND CONTENTS:

       The book has 10 chapters: negative mental health, personality dimensions, self-reported symptom scales, clinician-administrated symptom rating scales, positive mental health, the pharmacopsychometric triangle for measurement-based care, diagnostic rating scales, social functioning disability scales, a practical outcome evaluation plan, and conclusion. The book includes examples and an index.

AUTHOR’S STATEMENT:

       The book is based on the principle of measurement-based care in focusing on measurement instruments (rating scales or questionnaires) conventionally used in clinical research as randomized, placebo-controlled trials of psychopharmacological medication which are shortened to be easy-to-use in the daily routine of care in mental disorders. With reference to the pharmacopsychometric triangle these instruments should be able to differentiate between the desired clinical effect and the undesired side-effects with patient-reported quality of life scales to ultimately conclude if the treatment has helped for the mental disorder being treated. The self-reported symptom scales are derived using the Symptom Checklist (SCL-90) as an item bank and the clinician-administrated, short, valid scales are derived from the Hamilton Anxiety Scale, the Hamilton Depression Scale, and the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale as an item bank. The brief side-effect scales are derived from the UKU side effect scale and the short quality of life scale from the Psychological General Well-being scale.

       The clinical significance of these outcome scales are estimated by effect size statistics for response issues and number needed to treat (NNT) for remission issues.

Per Bech

March 30, 2017