RESEARCH WEEKLY: October Research Roundup
By Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq
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
90.5% of adults in Alabama that receive state mental health services have serious mental illness
According to data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, more than nine out of ten individuals served by Alabama state-funded mental health services had a serious mental illness in 2020. This is compared to the U.S. average of 71.6%. Additionally, only 56% of individuals served by the Alabama state mental health agency have Medicaid, compared to the U.S. average of 72%. Alabama is one of the 12 states that have not expanded Medicaid.
RESEARCH of the month
How psychosis impacts women and men differently
Psychosis can be very disruptive to an individual’s life. Previous research has indicated that there are differences in the course of illness and presentation of symptoms between men and women, however little research has explored how women and men may experience psychosis and the associated disruptions on their lives.
Researchers from Brown University Medical School sought to fill this informational void by conducting interviews with people with schizophrenia utilizing a semi-structured interview template designed to assess illness narratives associated with schizophrenia. Participants were asked five things: to share about their life stories, their mental illness narrative, to reflect on their experiences with mental illness, to discuss the extent they have control over their mental illness and describe what they expect their future will look like.
The researchers compared the results of the interviews between individuals who identified as men to women, matching responses by age and other demographics between the two groups to control for other factors that might influence one’s experience of psychosis.
Women and men both discussed how experiencing psychosis impacts their work through loss or changes in work trajectories, and isolation and strain on their relationships. Women were more likely to include parenting in the discussion of how psychosis has impacted their life, including the sadness of loss of a parenting role.
Another major difference between men and women’s experience of psychosis pertains to stigma, where men felt they were often perceived by others as dangerous and women stated experiencing stigma in the form of paternalism in relationships, where others treated them like children or minimized their experiences.
The results suggest different genders may experience different intersections of social expectations and disruptions to their lives caused by psychosis. Practitioners should consider these differences, especially as they pertain to women as current treatments may neglect their specific challenges.
Bridge peer health navigator program reduces emergency department use for individuals with serious mental illness
The Bridge Model is a peer health navigator program that is designed to teach people with serious mental illness skills to access and manage various health services. Utilizing several behavioral strategies such as modeling and coaching, the Bridge program works to engage individuals in their overall health with the goal of reducing morbidity and mortality.
Research published in Psychiatric Services this month indicates that the Bridge program is effective in decreasing emergency department visits among people with serious mental illness enrolled in the program. Utilizing Medicaid data from individuals enrolled in a Bridge program in Southern California, the study authors assessed participants general medical care usage compared to those on the waitlist to enter the program. They found that Bridge program participants utilized the emergency department significantly less than the control group but found no difference in usage of general medical inpatient or outpatient services between the two groups.
The results indicate that peer health navigator programs like the Bridge program may be effective in addressing health disparities among people with serious mental illness. Considering people with serious mental illness die up to 25 years earlier than those of the general population, finding solutions to reduce morbidity and mortality is a high priority.
Major depressive episodes in marginalized racial and ethnic minorities
Black adults experience greater persistence of major depression and severity of major depressive episodes compared to white adults, according to a new analysis published in JAMA Psychiatry last month. Utilizing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual household survey conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the study authors also found that Latinx adults experience similar major depressive episode severity to white adults, despite previous research indicating otherwise. The authors suggest that disparities in access to mental health treatment services and greater experiences of discrimination may contribute to these findings.
