RESEARCH WEEKLY: January Research Roundup By Sophie Ali 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 Over 50% of people with both serious mental illness and another disability did not receive outpatient treatment People with disabilities are often confronted with many barriers to accessing both physical and mental health treatment. This is especially pertinent to serious mental illness treatment because serious mental illness is much more prevalent among people with a disability compared to people without a disability. A new paper in the Journal of Affective Disorders found that one third of individuals with both serious mental illness and another disability did not receive prescription medications and more than half did not receive outpatient treatment within the past year. This finding emphasizes the inadequate access to mental health services for people with a co-occurring disability and serious mental illness. Xie, Z., Tanner, R., Striley, C. L., & Marlow, N. M. (2022). Association of functional disability with mental health services use and perceived unmet needs for mental health care among adults with serious mental illness. Journal of Affective Disorders, 299, 449–455. RESEARCH of the month Spirituality as a resource for family caregivers Familial caregivers are an integral part of an individual’s experience with severe mental illness. These caregivers often experience periods of stress when assisting their loved ones. The use of spiritual or religious practices are commonly used as coping strategies in such instances. A recent article published in the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing identified the spiritual aspects of the family caregivers’ experiences when caring for an adult with severe mental illness. Upon completion of the study, it was discovered that spiritual coping strategies are used by caregivers and spiritual needs are expressed by caregivers. Spiritual coping strategies may include connecting with the inner self through meditation/contemplation or finding hopefulness in the future. On the other hand, examples of spiritual needs include obtaining a sense of meaning and purpose, experiencing love and harmonious relationships, and receiving and giving forgiveness. Thus, it can be concluded that in accordance with personal beliefs, spirituality can serve as a resource for caregiver wellbeing. Casaleiro, T., Caldeira, S., Cardoso, D., & Apóstolo, J. (January 2022). Spiritual aspects of the family caregivers’ experiences when caring for a community-dwelling adult with severe mental illness: A systemic review of qualitative evidence. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. How perceived disability and quality of life affects clinical recovery and personal recovery for individuals with schizophrenia Recovery is a major goal for individuals with schizophrenia and other serious mental illnesses. The concept of recovery can be broken down into two categories: clinical and personal. Clinical recovery is defined by the absence or reduction of symptoms and improvement of functioning. On the other hand, personal recovery is an individual’s perception of developing meaning and purpose in life while living with mental illness. Recent research published in the Journal of Schizophrenia Research examines the relationship between personal and clinical recovery along with the mediators of perceived functional disability and quality of life among adult patients with schizophrenia in China. This study analyzed data collected from 356 participants recruited from 12 community health centers through China’s 686 program that provides free medication to adults with serious mental illnesses. Participants underwent structured face-to-face interviews along with a clinical assessment of psychiatric symptoms. Results showed that clinical and personal recovery were modestly associated, so when one form of recovery improved so did the other. The results also indicated that the existence of a disability led to a lower likelihood of both clinical and personal recovery, as well as a lower quality of life. Conversely, if a person already had a high quality of life, they were found to have more improvements in both clinical and personal recovery. In summary, better clinical recovery leads to lower disability, defined as the impairment of one’s functioning, which then leads to a higher quality of life and better personal recovery. Notably, quality of life had the largest impact on the relationship between clinical and personal recovery. Researchers suggest that clinicians should take personal recovery into consideration when treating individuals with schizophrenia. Yu, Y., Shen, M., Niu, L., Liu, Y.-E., Xiao, S., & Tebes, J. K. (2022). The relationship between clinical recovery and personal recovery among people living with schizophrenia: A serial meditation model and the role of disability and quality of life. Schizophrenia Research, 239, 168–175. Poor patient memory and learning of the contents of a treatment session occur among individuals with serious mental illness In previous studies, both memory and learning of treatment contents have been found to be poor among individuals with serious mental illness who were receiving treatment. Treatment contents are the provider recommendations and skills acquired in treatment. Research on improving memory and learning of treatment contents has progressed over time, however gaps in the literature still remain. There is a lack of research evaluating patient factors that may contribute to worse memory and learning of treatment contents. Furthermore, prior studies occurred in university settings, which makes it difficult to determine if findings can extend to routine care settings. A recent study published in the Journal of Behaviour Research and Therapy examines memory and learning for the contents of the Transdiagnostic Intervention for Sleep and Circadian Dysfunction (TranS-C) among adults with serious mental illness in a community mental health setting. TranS-C is a treatment used to improve sleep and circadian problems that co-occur with serious mental illness. This study begins to address the gaps in previous literature by evaluating factors such as symptom severity, old age and education in memory and learning, in addition to conducting the study in a routine care setting. Ninety-nine adults with serious mental illness received the TranS-C treatment, a patient recall task to assess memory, and questionnaires related to thoughts, applications and advice about treatment content to assess learning. Like previous research in university settings, both recall and learning were poor among study participants, which indicates that these same findings can occur in care settings. Furthermore, fewer years of education were associated with worse recall and learning. However, neither recall nor learning were associated with the outcome of the TranS-C treatment, meaning that the treatment resulted in improvements despite participants exhibiting poor memory and learning. Future research on the subject may consider focusing on other measures of learning and memory along with different treatments for individuals with serious mental illness. Gumport, N. B., & Harvey, A. G. (2022). Memory and learning for sleep and circadian treatment in serious mental illness treated in a community mental health setting. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 149. Sophie Ali is a research intern at the Treatment Advocacy Center. View as Webpage To receive Research Weekly directly in your email inbox on a weekly basis, click here. Questions? Contact us at [email protected] Research Weekly is a summary published as a public service of the Treatment Advocacy Center and does not necessarily reflect the findings or positions of the organization or its staff. Full access to research summarized may require a fee or paid subscription to the publications. The Treatment Advocacy Center does not solicit or accept funds from pharmaceutical companies. 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