MATCH. A longitudinal study of the course of non-psychotic psychiatric illness in patients in primary, secondary, and tertiary mental health care.

Psychiatric disorders are widespread, affecting 4 out of 10 of the Dutch at
some point in life. By far most prevalent are so-called common or non-psychotic
disorders, including depressive, anxiety, substance abuse and personality
disorders. For long, most of these disorders have been conceived as transient,
short-term disorders with a low risk of recurrence. However, chronicity appears
often and is difficult to predict based on clinical parameters only. In fact,
care arrangements and social support appear to play an important role. The
large number of non-psychotic patients in both short and long-term services,
placing a heavy burden on the mental health care system and health care
finances, as evidenced by recent budget cuts and increasing co-payments make it
increasingly relevant to undertake longitudinal studies. We need to know more
about the course of non-psychotic psychiatric disorders, understand the origins
of chronicity in more detail, and have more insight in related care processes,
care use, and costs. Therefore this study focuses on people with non-psychotic
psychiatric disorders in different settings of health care, in different
illness stages both in and out of care.

(1) To describe the course of non-psychotic disorders in detail, especially the
emergence of chronicity and long-term dependency on professional care
(2) To describe clusters of symptoms of distinct non-psychotic disorders in a
way that is more scientifically sound and more useful in (long-term) care and
treatment
(3) To explore associations between clinical, treatment, and social variables
and the emergence of chronicity in general, and the emergence of complex care
situations in particular
(4) To predict the emergence of chronicity and complex care situations as early
as possible using a wide range of variables, in order to prevent these outcomes
to occur

A 4-year longitudinal observational study with yearly assessments of 500
patients with non-psychotic psychiatric disorders, in different settings and
illness stages.

This is a low-risk observational study of patients receiving psychiatric care
as currently provided. Yearly questionnaires and interviews are used, with low
impact on patients* daily life. The baseline-assessment is extensive and
possibly burdensome.