This study assesses the views and experiences of psychiatrists of the Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003. A postal questionnaire was sent to 340 consultant psychiatrists and specialist registrars throughout Scotland.

A response rate of 76% was achieved (n=257); 31 respondents (12%) felt patient care had improved with the newAct; 167 (65%) felt that informal patients' care had suffered; 135 (52%) did not consider that tribunals were better than the previous court system; 151 (59%) felt that the out-of-hours workload had increased.

An early indication of psychiatrists' views and experiences of the new Mental Health (Care and Treatment) (Scotland) Act 2003 is given.

To ascertain the views of people with personality disorder on their clinical interactions with professionals, to identify potential solutions to problematic interactions and to compile guidelines on how professionals could improve their interactions with these service users. Qualitative methodology was employed, comprising a modified nominal group technique with two iterative groups and ranking by importance the issues and themes raised.

There were 13 service users from three separate personality disorder services who actively participated in a group discussion and iterative process. Collectively they indicated considerable areas of deficiency in the quality of their interaction and communication with professionals. These deficits were defined clearly enough to allow the construction of guidelines aimed at preventing or remedying such deficiencies.

The contribution of those people with personality disorder who took part in this study was sufficiently thoughtful to allow the development of guidelines that might help staff improve their interactions with such service users. From these guidelines, further training tools are being developed, which will be evaluated in the future. However, because not all those approached chose to participate, the views expressed might not be representative of this group as a whole.

Following a survey in 2001, a protocol for monitoring weight and blood glucose of psychiatric in-patients receiving antipsychotic drugs was developed. The effect of this protocol was investigated by comparing 61 admissions in 2004 with the 2001 in-patients.

No significant improvement in recording of admission weight or blood glucose was observed. Ongoing monitoring of weight after admission was significantly more common. For only 29% of patients studied in 2004 was there complete adherence to the protocol.

In spite of the availability of a protocol and education, the results suggest that monitoring of weight and blood glucose is still haphazard for psychiatric in-patients. The implications for out-patient monitoring are discussed.

A buprenorphine prescribing service was set up for opiate-dependent patients and the initiative was then audited using 11 standards.

Thirty-three patients met inclusion criteria for opiate detoxification and 7 successfully completed detoxification, equating to a number needed to treat of 5. However, 2-year follow-up data showed no clear advantage for these 7 patients compared with 9 patients who had failed detoxification at the outset. Only 5 of the 11 audit standards were satisfied.

The results suggest that a buprenorphine prescribing service may be of benefit to opiate-dependent patients in the short term. However, the audit standards identified may be unrealistic because of the likely lack of adherence of this patient group. Further work is needed to establish the feasibility of this treatment modality in ‘real-world’ settings.

Many studies report prescribing preferences for antipsychotics but few have examined what professionals would choose for themselves if they were diagnosed with schizophrenia. We asked 188 nurses, pharmacists and doctors which antipsychotic they would prefer to be prescribed.

Risperidone (n=49, 26.1%), olanzapine (n=49, 26.1%) and aripiprazole (n=35, 18.6%) were the most popular choices.

Professionals' choice was in line with the latest evidence on comparative effectiveness of atypical antipsychotics and therefore might be a sensitive indicator of the most effective antipsychotic.