Trial reportBMC psychiatry2014
The effectiveness of assertive community treatment for elderly patients with severe mental illness: a randomized controlled trial.
Trial report in BMC psychiatry, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psychosocial Interventions for Older Adults With Severe Mental Illness: A Systematic Scoping Review and Meta-analysis.Schizophrenia bulletin · 2026Pooled it
- Effectiveness of multidisciplinary psychiatric home treatment for elderly patients with mental illness: a systematic review of empirical studies.BMC psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- Assertive Community Treatment and ACT-Derived Outreach Models: A Scoping Review of Adaptations, Fidelity and Outcomes.Community mental health journal · 2026Article
- Preliminary Study of the Effectiveness of the GUIA Assertive Community Treatment Program for the Care of Young, Highly Complex Mental Health Patients.Community mental health journal · 2026Observational
- [Home treatment in geriatric psychiatry: an idea with a future?!]Der Nervenarzt · 2023Article
- [Clinical and social evaluation of depressed patients in a Psychogeriatric Day Hospital program].Anales del sistema sanitario de Navarra · 2022Article
- [Complex treatment of severe mental illnesses in old age].Der Nervenarzt · 2021Review
- [Community-based psychosocial care for people with dementia].Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2017Review
- [Innovative healthcare strategies in geriatric psychiatry and psychotherapy].Der Nervenarzt · 2015Review
- Decrease in unmet needs contributes to improved motivation for treatment in elderly patients with severe mental illness.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2015Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundDue to fragmented mental, somatic, and social healthcare services, it can be hard to engage into care older patients with severe mental illness (SMI). In adult mental health care, assertive community treatment (ACT) is an organizational model of care for treating patients with SMI who are difficult to engage. So far all outcome studies of assertive community treatment have been conducted in adults.
methodsIn a randomized controlled trial design we compared the effectiveness of ACT for elderly patients with that of treatment as usual (TAU). Sixty-two outpatients (60 years and older) with SMI who were difficult to engage in psychiatric treatment were randomly assigned to the intervention or control group (32 to ACT for elderly patients and 30 to TAU). Primary outcomes included number of patients who had a first treatment contact within 3 months, the number of dropouts (i.e. those discharged from care due to refusing care or those who unintentionally lost contact with the service over a period of at least 3 months); and patients' psychosocial functioning (HoNOS65+ scores) during 18 months follow-up. Secondary outcomes included the number of unmet needs and mental health care use. Analyses were based on intention-to-treat.
resultsOf the 62 patients who were randomized, 26 were lost to follow-up (10 patients in ACT for elderly patients and 16 in TAU). Relative to patients with TAU, more patients allocated to ACT had a first contact within three months (96.9 versus 66.7%; X2 (df = 1) = 9.68, p = 0.002). ACT for elderly patients also had fewer dropouts from treatment (18.8% of assertive community treatment for elderly patients versus 50% of TAU patients; X2 (df = 1) = 6.75, p = 0.009). There were no differences in the other primary and secondary outcome variables.
conclusionsThese findings suggest that ACT for elderly patients with SMI engaged patients in treatment more successfully.
trial registrationNTR1620.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.