And how shall we deal with adaptation and implementation of NICE schizophrenia guidelines in Italy?

During the 1990s Evidence-Based Medicine emphasized the need to promote evidence-based practice, leading to a rise of practice guidelines throughout medicine, and expanding the systematic use of scientific evidence in clinical decision-making. Though administrators, clinicians, advocates and researchers generally agree that they should provide the most effective mental health treatments, implementing evidence-based practices in standard settings is not straightforward. The NICE-Schizophrenia Guidelines (SG) were translated into Italian at a significant time as concerns upcoming review of National mental health care models. However, guidelines must be contextualized to the concrete care practices. Simply publishing and distributing clinical guidelines is not enough to change the practice of clinicians. National mental health services in England and in Italy, share principles – e.g. providing a universal and comprehensive service with equal access for all, free at the point of use, based on clinical need, not ability to pay – but also weaknesses such as difficulties in translating the best research evidence available to implementable clinical practice recommendations. To maximise the likelihood of NICE-SG being used, coherent dissemination and implementation strategies are needed. This article provides new insights about barriers and facilitators for adaptation and implementation of NICE-SG within Italian Mental Health Services