Background: When developing early intervention programs, assessment of patient s profile at a local level is critical in order to adapt tools developed elswhere to the actual needs of first episode patients. In the frame of the development of the Lausanne TIPP program, patients were assessed at baseline presentation.
Method: Assessment of demographic and clinical characteristics through a specially designed questionnaire used at entry to the service by case managers.
Results: 50 patients were assessed between April 2004 and March 2005. Pre-morbid evaluation revealed high rates of substance use disorder (SUD) (59%), history of psychiatric disorder (66%), traumatic events (68%), suicide attempts (7%) and family history of psychiatric illness (74%). At baseline, there was high rate of lack of insight (85%). Median duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) was 5.6 months.
Conclusions: Patients in Lausanne present with issues similar to those described in other larger centres : high rate of passed history of traumtic events, of mental illness in the family and history of SUD. Relatively short DUP may reflect the richness of the health care system in Switzerland.