[ROM in mood, anxiety and somatoform disorders: a promising technique with pleasing results].

BACKGROUND: Since 2002 the Leiden University Medical Center and the psychiatric hospital Rivierduinen have been using routine outcome monitoring in patients suffering from mood, anxiety and somatoform disorders (ROM). AIM: To describe the ROM-MAS set-up, explain how the system was implemented and report on the data-based scientific research that ensued. METHOD: The study is mainly descriptive. RESULTS: Circa 80% of the patients were assessed at intake, 50% via follow-up measurements. ROM-MAS has become a regular component of patient care. However, it has proved difficult to make full use of the outcomes in clinical practice and particularly in benchmarking. The data for 8357 patients have generated various publications relating to psychometrics, epidemiology and effects of treatment. CONCLUSION: ROM-MAS is now generally accepted and has been introduced in most psychiatric clinics. The next step is to make better use of the results for clinical practice and for benchmarking. ROM-MAS provides valuable data and generates publications relating to a naturalistic secondary-care cohort.