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CTOs: what is the state of the evidence?

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Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Community Treatment Orders (CTOs) require outpatients to adhere to treatment and permit rapid hospitalisation when necessary. They have become a clinical and policy solution to repeated hospital readmissions despite some strong opposition and the contested nature of published evidence. In this article, we appraise the current literature on CTOs from the viewpoint of Evidence-Based Medicine and discuss the way forward for using and researching CTOs.

Results

Non-randomised outcome studies show conflicting results, but their lack of standardisation of methods and measures makes it difficult to draw conclusions. In contrast, all three randomised controlled trials (RCTs) conducted concur in their findings that CTOs do not impact on hospital outcomes. No systematic review or meta-analysis has identified any clear clinical advantage to CTOs.

Conclusion

The evidence-base does not support the use of CTOs in their current form. Involuntary clinical interventions must conform to the highest standard of evidence-based care. To enable clinicians to take an evidence-based approach and to settle remaining uncertainties about the current evidence, high-quality RCTs should be designed and undertaken, using standardised outcome measures.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank Daniel Maughan for his input into this manuscript. We also thank the two reviewers for useful comments.

Conflict of interest

The authors are part of the OCTET study team.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Health Services Research Unit, Akershus University Hospital, 1478, Lørenskog, Norway

    Jorun Rugkåsa

  2. Faculty of Law, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    John Dawson

  3. Department of Psychiatry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Jorun Rugkåsa & Tom Burns

Authors
  1. Jorun Rugkåsa
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  2. John Dawson
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  3. Tom Burns
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Correspondence to Jorun Rugkåsa.

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Rugkåsa, J., Dawson, J. & Burns, T. CTOs: what is the state of the evidence?. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol 49, 1861–1871 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-014-0839-7

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