What side effects are problematic for patients prescribed antipsychotic medication? The Maudsley Side Effects (MSE) measure for antipsychotic medication.
BACKGROUND
Capturing service users' perspectives can highlight additional and different concerns to those of clinicians, but there are no up to date, self-report psychometrically sound measures of side effects of antipsychotic medications. Aim To develop a psychometrically sound measure to identify antipsychotic side effects important to service users, the Maudsley Side Effects (MSE) measure.


METHOD
An initial item bank was subjected to a Delphi exercise (n = 9) with psychiatrists and pharmacists, followed by service user focus groups and expert panels (n = 15) to determine item relevance and language. Feasibility and comprehensive psychometric properties were established in two samples (N43 and N50). We investigated whether we could predict the three most important side effects for individuals from their frequency, severity and life impact.


RESULTS
MSE is a 53-item measure with good reliability and validity. Poorer mental and physical health, but not psychotic symptoms, was related to side-effect burden. Seventy-nine percent of items were chosen as one of the three most important effects. Severity, impact and distress only predicted 'putting on weight' which was more distressing, more severe and had more life impact in those for whom it was most important.


CONCLUSIONS
MSE is a self-report questionnaire that identifies reliably the side-effect burden as experienced by patients. Identifying key side effects important to patients can act as a starting point for joint decision making on the type and the dose of medication.
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D000328:Adult D014150:Antipsychotic Agents D003697:Delphi Technique D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions D005260:Female D006801:Humans D008297:Male D008875:Middle Aged D011594:Psychometrics D015203:Reproducibility of Results D012559:Schizophrenia D057566:Self Report D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires D055815:Young Adult
Medication side effects PROM participatory methods schizophrenia self report