Expert consensus on information sheet proposals for patients under treatment with lithium

Abstract

Introduction: Lithium is one of the first therapeutic options for bipolar disorder, which is characterized by recurrent mood swings that strongly reduce quality of life. Our purpose was to achieve professional consensus criteria to define the contents of an information sheet for patients with bipolar disorder that are starting treatment with lithium.

Material and methods: A modified Delphi method in two rounds was used. The Scientific Committee-made up by nine psychiatrists-created a 20-item questionnaire about the information that must be given to the patient treated with lithium and selected a panel of ambulatory and hospital psychiatric experts to agree on this information. Panelists scored each item based on a Likert scale of 9 points and could add comments in a confidential manner. It was considered consensus in agreement when median scores were within the range of [7-9] and in disagreement within the range of [1-3].

Results: A high level of consensus was reached. In the first round, there was agreement on 17 out of 20 items and, after the second round, there was disagreement on just one item containing information about the discovery of lithium. Finally, said item was modified in the Patient's Information Sheet based on the comments suggested by the panelists.

Conclusions: This study allowed to create an information sheet for patients with bipolar disorder under treatment with lithium, with information agreed upon by a group of experts from different health care settings.

Keywords: Bipolar disorder; Delphi; Hoja de información al paciente; Lithium; Litio; Patient information sheet; Trastorno bipolar.