Royal Free & University College Medical School UCL Department of mental health sciences

MRC Cardiovascular Screening and Mental Health (CaSMH) Projects

Existing literature suggests that the physical health of people with severe mental illness (SMI) is poor, with increased incidence of cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors, morbidity and mortality.  The NICE Guidelines for Schizophrenia (2002) have stated that the physical health of people with schizophrenia should be monitored but there is little quality research on how this can best be achieved.  The results from the developmental phase of our project suggest (a) that offering CVD screening to people with SMI is seen as important by service users and staff from primary and secondary care services, and (b) that screening should take place primarily in primary care, with mental health services encouraging the uptake of screening and perhaps delivering it to the patients who do not attend in primary care.

An exploratory trial is now underway to investigate the feasibility and acceptability of a new nurse-led CVD prevention service.

Study Design:

Six community mental health teams (CMHTs) in Camden and Islington have been randomly assigned to either the control or intervention arm of the trial:

CMHTs in the intervention arm will receive the services of a cardiovascular nurse for 6 months.  During the trial period, the cardiovascular nurse will work proactively to encourage and facilitate CVD screening and referrals for CVD interventions for service users with SMI through existing NHS services. 

Main Outcomes Measures:

1.The percentage of clients with SMI who are offered and take up CVD screening during the trial period.

2.The percentage of clients with SMI who are offered and take up referrals for appropriate risk reduction interventions during the trial period.  

These outcomes will be compared between randomly selected sub-samples of service users from the intervention and control arm CMHTs.

This is phase two of an MRC funded 'trial platform' project, and is supported by the North London Research Consortium (NoCLoR)

Enquiries and Information
Sandra O'Sullivan Hub Coordinator
Tel: 0207 386 1233 S.osullivan@imperial.ac.uk