Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Jun;40(3):115-8.
doi: 10.1192/pb.bp.115.052373.

Little evidence for community treatment orders - a battle fought with heavy weapons

Affiliations

Little evidence for community treatment orders - a battle fought with heavy weapons

Reinhard Heun et al. BJPsych Bull. 2016 Jun.

Abstract

This editorial discusses the pros and cons of community treatment orders (CTOs) from the perspective of community general adult psychiatry. There is little scientific evidence supporting the application of CTOs. Preconditions of a CTO to work are likely to be met by few patients. The time for the application of a CTO may be better spent for patient-centred care until there is sufficient new and robust evidence that identifies the patients that might profit.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interest R.H., S.D. and P.R. are members of the Executive Committee of the Faculty of General Adult Psychiatry of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.

Similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Light E. The epistemic challenges of CTOs. Psychiatric Bull 2014; 38: 6–8. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stroud J, Banks L, Doughty K. Community treatment orders: learning from experiences of service users, practitioners and nearest relatives. J Ment Health 2015; 24: 88–92. - PubMed
    1. Rugkåsa J, Dawson J, Burns T. CTOs: what is the state of the evidence? Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 2014; 49: 1861–71. - PubMed
    1. Mustafa FA. Why clinicians still use community treatment orders. Acta Psychiatr Scand 2015; 132: 309–10. - PubMed
    1. Kisely SR, Campbell LA. Compulsory community and involuntary outpatient treatment for people with severe mental disorders. Schizophr Bull 2015; 41: 542–3. - PMC - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources

-