Community Treatment Order: Identifying the need for more evidence based justification of its use in first episode psychosis patients

Abstract

Objectives Community Treatment Order (CTO) is a legal regime that obliges patients suffering mental disorder to adhere to treatment in the community and allows for a swift admission to hospital if necessary. Study aims were to: (i) determine CTO frequency in a large representative sample of first episode psychosis (FEP) patients; (ii) compare the characteristics of patients with or without CTO before entry, during treatment and at discharge from an early psychosis program. Methods Information on 660 patients treated at the Early Psychosis Prevention and Intervention Centre (EPPIC) between 1998 and 2000 was collected from medical files. Results 19.2% of patients were under CTO at least once d..