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BackgroundThe achievement of recovery is related to the notion of developing personal potential and restoring a legitimate social role, even against the backdrop of mental illness limitations. It is still difficult to fully understand this highly subjective and dynamic process. Therefore, in order to test the recovery process, specific tools, still only marginally used in our country, are needed.AimsThe Italian Study on Recovery is the first study aimed at confirming the validity of the Italian version of the Recovery Assessment Scale (RAS), an instrument developed with the goal of detecting recovery among patients.MethodThis multicentric research involved several Mental Health Services from various parts of Italy. The first phase of the study consisted in the administration of the Italian translation of RAS, previously used in a pilot study conducted in 2009. RAS was administered to 219 patients diagnosed with psychosis, whose mental disorder lasted for at least 5 years.ResultsFindings supported the good psychometric properties of the Italian version of RAS, demonstrating its capability of identifying patients matching the “in recovery” operational criteria.ConclusionsIn consideration of the results highlighting the good psychometric properties of RAS, the present study may contribute to the diffusion of instruments to be included in Mental Health Service planning in the Italian context, in order to start a recovery-oriented transformation.

Schizophrenia poses a significant economic burden on the healthcare system as well as it has a significant impact on society at large. Reasons for such a high economic burden of schizophrenia include the frequent relapses and hospitalizations occurring in this disorder. We analyze the effectiveness of long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIs) compared to oral medications, in terms of "clinical process management" in a sample of patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia spectrum disorder treated in community mental health centers. An observational, retrospective, mirror-image study was carried out to evaluate the effectiveness of LAIs compared to oral medications in terms of number of hospitalizations, emergency visits and planned visits on a 10-year period (from July 2007 to June 2017). Differences between first and second generation LAIs were also explored. Our findings show that hospitalization and emergency visits are significantly decreased with the use of LAIs, while planned visits are increased in patients treated with LAIs. Our results suggest that LAIs, in particular, second generation ones, reduce hospitalization rates and emergency visits, improving the economic burden of schizophrenia. Therefore, LAIs should be considered a cost-effective treatment in the management of schizophrenia under routine conditions.