Early intervention in psychosis: a feasibility study
financed by the Italian Center on Control
of Maladies
Angelo Cocchi,' Andrea Balbi,2 Giuseppe Corlito,3 Guido Ditta,' Walter Di Munzio,5 Mario Nicotera,6
Anna Meneghelli,1 Alessia Pisano' and Antonio Preti"
'Dipartimento di Salute Mentale: Programma 2000, Azienda Ospedaliera Ospedale Niguarda Ca' Granda, Milan, 2Dipartimento di Salute Mentale, Roma D, ASI Roma, 'Ministero della Salute, Rome, 'Dipartimento di Salute Mentale di Grosseto, ASL Grosseto, Grosseto, 'Dipartimento di Salute Mentale, Salerno 1, ASL Salerno, Salerno, 'Dipartimento di Salute Mentale, Unità Operativa di Soverato, Catanzaro, and 'Centro di Psichiatria di Consulenza e Psicosomatica AUOC Cagliari and University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy
Corresponding author: Professor Dott. Angelo Cocchi, A.O. Ospedale Niguarda Ca' Granda, Programma 2000 - Via Livigno, 3, 20128 Milan, Italy. Email: Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.; Questo indirizzo email è protetto dagli spambots. È necessario abilitare JavaScript per vederlo.
Received 15 August 2013; accepted 5 February 2014
Abstract
Aim: In November 2005 the Italian Center on Control of Maladies, a department operating undbr the Ministry of Health, financed a project aimed at evaluating the feasibility of a protocol of intervention based on the early intervention in psychosis (EIP) model within the Italian public mental health- care network.
Methods: The study was carried out between March 2007 and December 2009. It involved five centres operating under the Departments of Mental Health of Milan (Programma 2000), Rome (area D), Grosseto, Salerno (Nocera) and Catanzaro (Soverato).
Results: Enrolment lasted 12 months, at the end of which 43 patients were enrolled as first- episode psychosis (FEP), and 24 subjects as ultra highrisk (UHR) patients. Both FEP and
UHR samples included a preponderance of male patients. A family history of psychosis was rarely reported in both samples. The FEP incidence rate was lower than expected on the basis of international estimates of the incidence of schizophrenia but within the expected figure for the estimated Italian rates in three centres out of five.
Conclusions: Overall, the study proved that an EIP centre can be established within the public Department of Mental Health to reach a good fraction of the cases in need of treatment. Since then, several studies have been set up to assess the feasibility of EIP in the Italian public mental health sector in Lombardy and Tuscany, and in 2012 the Emilia-Romagna Regional Authority started an educational plan aimed at implementing the EIP model in all the Mental Health Departments in the region.
