Sharing the responsibility for improved care: the example of the Lundbeck International Psychiatric Institute

The Lundbeck International Psychiatric Institute was founded as an independent forum for discussions by international psychiatrists on the treatment of mood disorders and schizophrenia with the aim to improve the treatment of patients suffering from CNS-diseases. The Institute has presented 18 schizophrenia seminars until the end of 1998. These seminars address various aspects of the treatment plan of schizophrenia, including psychopharmacology, psychoeducation and quality management. All the discussions are focused on evidenced-based psychiatry and international treatment guidelines. In this paper the data collected from participants of the schizophrenia seminars are presented. These data are comparisons of the psychiatrists' treatment habits and knowledge about schizophrenia before the seminars and 2 weeks and 6 months after attending the seminars. The results presented include changes in the participants' treatment habits in relation to optimal doses for antipsychotics during the acute treatment phase, minimum doses during the maintenance phase, duration of treatment in the maintenance phase, and use of classic versus new generation antipsychotics. The Lundbeck Institute hopes to improve the treatment outcome for patients with CNS-diseases. The schizophrenia seminars seem to be changing psychiatrists' treatment habits and their knowledge about the disease.