Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica
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Acta Psychiatr Scand · May 2015
Randomized Controlled TrialCommunity treatment orders: clinical and social outcomes, and a subgroup analysis from the OCTET RCT.
Despite widespread use internationally, there is no convincing evidence that community treatment orders (CTO) (legal regimes making out-patient treatment compulsory), reduce readmission rates or have wider patient benefit. The primary and secondary outcomes of the Oxford Community Treatment Order Evaluation Trial (OCTET) (hospitalisation) showed no benefit. This article will, first, test the effect of community compulsion on wider clinical and social outcomes and on patients' experiences of services and the use of treatment pressure and second, explore differential effects in different groups of patients. ⋯ CTOs do not have benefit on any of the tested outcomes, or for any subgroup of patients. Their continued use should be carefully reconsidered.