RESEARCH WEEKLY: April Research Roundup
By Kelli South
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
84% COVID-19 vaccination rate among patients with serious mental illness
In a new study published in Psychiatric Services, researchers found significant impacts from a pilot project aimed to increase COVID-19 vaccine uptake among individuals with serious mental illness at a community mental health center. The project included educational opportunities about the vaccine from clinicians to identify concerns and increase confidence in the vaccine. After the project implementation, there was an 84% COVID-19 vaccination rate among individuals with serious mental illness who participated, compared to the estimated state vaccination rate on the same date, which was between 62.1% and 77.3%. This is in line with Treatment Advocacy Center’s own findings that suggest targeted outreach can increase vaccine uptake among those with serious mental illness.
RESEARCH OF THE MONTH
Comorbidity patterns in schizophrenia
A study published in Translational Psychiatry this month analyzed insurance records from 61,453 patients with schizophrenia in order to find comorbidity patterns highly associated with the severe mental illness. The report indicates that anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder are more common in individuals who later develop schizophrenia than individuals who do not. The authors also found that individuals who already have schizophrenia are more likely to have a variety of related psychiatric disorders, including dementia, epilepsy and eating disorders, and that the likelihood of various comorbidities changes by age group. Among many other interesting findings, the authors also noticed that those who do not later develop schizophrenia and those who do not currently have schizophrenia engage in more routine health checkups, suggesting that those without schizophrenia are generally healthier than those that have schizophrenia. The authors suggest that clinicians use these findings to look out for early signs of co-occurring diseases in their patients in order to better treat their illnesses.
Teletherapy benefits during COVID-19
Many individuals with serious mental illness were forced to halt or switch therapy methods during the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to major life disruptions and potentially worsened health outcomes. An analysis of 270 individuals with serious mental illness living in Spain, published this month in PLOS ONE, revealed that teletherapy during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with better illness outcomes later on. The authors found that those who were able to access teletherapy during the first wave had lower rates of emergency room visits and hospitalizations in the six months following the first wave. This suggests that teletherapy was a protective factor against certain illness outcomes and was a useful tool for continuing therapy for patients in need when in-person therapy was not an option. Interestingly, the authors also found that most patients returned to in-person therapy after the first wave of COVID-19 was over, suggesting that they preferred in-patient to teletherapy despite the increased risk of contracting COVID-19.
Aerobic exercise and cognitive functioning
Aerobic exercise can have positive effects on cognitive function in individuals with schizophrenia, according to a new meta-analysis of 22 articles published in Psychiatry Research. The authors found that aerobic exercise guided by an occupational therapist improved global cognition, as well as verbal learning and memory, reasoning and problem solving in patients with schizophrenia. They also noted that aerobic exercise had a positive impact on global cognition in the long-term. Aerobic exercise can be difficult for individuals with a severe mental illness to engage in and maintain for a variety of reasons and the authors suggest that more research should be done on how to integrate exercise into a patient’s treatment plan in a meaningful, feasible and economical way.
