[Referral of a stabilized patient with psychotic disorder to the general practitioner: a pilot study]

In various countries, general practitioners (GPs) play an important role after treatment for non-affective psychotic disorder (NAPD) in mental health care. It is unclear how these patients fare.

To compare the clinical course of patients largely recovered from NAPD and referred to the GP with the course of patients who remain in treatment at mental healthcare.

In a retrospective cohort study, 20 patients referred to GPs by mental healthcare (GP cohort) were compared to 20 patients who remained in treatment at mental healthcare (MH cohort), matched by age and gender. The clinical course was evaluated with the GPs and the mental healthcare practitioner, respectively. In addition, medication adherence and reasons for referral to the GP and mental healthcare were registered.

In the GP cohort more patients (70%) deteriorated than in the MH cohort (5%) (p <0.001). In the MH cohort more patients showed therapeutic compliance (90%) than in the GP cohort (67%) (p = 0.078). After about four years, 65% of the patients in the GP cohort were back in treatment at mental healthcare. Among the 13 patients who were referred to the GP while functioning stably, more patients (54%) deteriorated than their matched counterparts in the MH cohort (8%) (p = 0.034).

The results confirm that caution is needed in referring patients recovered from non-affective psychotic disorder to the GP.