Psychological therapy is a worthwhile and effective way to help people with various mental health problems. However, it is also widely recognised that not all clients have the same response to therapy. Some people appear to gain much more from these interventions than others.

It is important to identify cases at risk of poor response to therapy as soon and as accurately as possible, since many patients who drop out of care during the earliest therapy sessions tend to have poor outcomes. Being alert to cases at risk of poor progress may help clinical services to respond in a personalised way to address possible obstacles and to maximise the chances of improvement.

The 16th International Mental Health Conference will showcase a poster titled: “Different people respond differently to therapy: Development of a patient-profiling tool”. This study was conducted by Dr Jaime Delgadillo (Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust and Department of Health Sciences, University of York, UK), Mr Omar Moreea (Leeds Community Healthcare NHS Trust, Leeds, UK) and Professor Wolfgang Lutz (Department of Psychology, University of Trier, Germany).

It aimed to identify patient characteristics that predict poor outcomes and to develop a patient profiling method to assist psychotherapists in routine practice. A weighting scheme called the Leeds Risk Index (LRI) was developed which can be used to alert clinicians to clients who may require close attention and additional support to maximise the chances of improvement.

The Leeds Risk Index (LRI) and Expected Treatment Response (ETR) models have been integrated into the PCMIS case management system, developed at the University of York in partnership with the Mental Health and Addiction Research Group. Working jointly with Flinders University Adelaide, PCMIS is used by psychological therapy services across Australia and can be used in a wide range of mental health services including adult, children and young persons, military veterans and research trials. PCMIS has the capability of alerting psychotherapists about cases at risk of poor outcomes in real-time, using information derived from validated psychometric instruments.

PCMIS has been designed by clinicians for clinicians and was the first evidence-based patient administration system in the UK. It enables clinicians, supervisors and managers to manage numerous individual patient pathways quickly and safely.

Find out more about PCMIS by visiting the stand at the conference or on our website http://www.pcmis.com

Further information about our research group: http://www.york.ac.uk/healthsciences/research/mental-health/