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RESEARCH WEEKLY: October Research Roundup
By Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq
(October 26, 2022) Research Roundup is a monthly public service of the Office of Research and Public Affairs. Each edition describes a striking new data point about severe mental illness and summarizes recently published research reports or developments.
DATAPOINT of the month
5% decrease in state hospital utilization in the United States
According to data published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, from 2017 to 2020, there was a 5% decrease in state hospital usage in the United States. Over that same time period, there was a 7% increase in community services usage.
RESEARCH of the month
Text messages to increase medication adherence
Maintaining adherence to medications for people with serious mental illness is a pervasive problem, with most evidence suggesting that nonadherence among this population is as high as 50%. While there are many reasons for nonadherence, including lack of insight and medication side effects, research suggests that mobile health technologies have promise to help promote medication adherence in people with severe mental illness.
A systematic literature review on text messages to increase medication adherence was recently published in Psychiatric Services by authors from Case Western Reserve University. The authors found that text messages to increase medication adherence in people with severe mental illness is both feasible and effective. Furthermore, there is also some evidence to suggest that interventions to address medication adherence in people with serious mental illness utilizing text messaging can help improve clinical outcomes as well. More research is needed to determine what types of text messaging interventions, such as one or two-way messaging and frequency of contacts, are most effective in this population.
Simon, E., et al. (August 2022). Systematic Literature Review of Text Messaging Interventions to Promote Medication Adherence Among People with Serious Mental Illness. Psychiatric Services.
Psychiatric treatment in prison for people with psychotic illness
There are many barriers to accessing psychiatric treatment for prisoners with mental illness. As Treatment Advocacy Center found in our 2014 report, people with mental illness most often leave correctional settings more sick than when they came in.
In new research published this month in Psychiatric Services, researchers examined antipsychotic medication treatment for male prisoners with psychosis. They found that 28% had stopped taking their antipsychotic medication by the 50th day of their incarceration. Younger patients were significantly more likely to stop taking their antipsychotic medications compared to older individuals, according to the results.
There were significantly less disciplinary infractions among male prisoners with psychotic disorders during the periods of adherence to antipsychotic medications than when individuals were nonadherent, the results indicate, suggesting antipsychotic medication treatment for prisoners with psychosis can help prevent the overrepresentation of this population in restrictive housing and solitary confinement.
Zarzar, T.R. (2022, October). The Natural History of Initial Antipsychotic Treatment Among Men Admitted to State Prison. Psychiatric Services.
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