RESEARCH WEEKLY: 2022 Top 5 List of Severe Mental Illness Research

By Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq

(December 28, 2022) Reflecting on 2022, the Office of Research and Public Affairs has put together our list of the top 5 research articles and reports published this year about severe mental illness.   

Here is our top 5: 

1. Experiences of women with severe mental illness – In September, ORPA released our latest research report, Listen to Us: The Unique Experience of Women with Severe Mental Illness. While there is some research examining how women with severe mental illness are disproportionately impacted, little of it involves listening to their own narratives. To help fill this gap, ORPA conducted focus group interviews to hear directly from women with severe mental illness about the unique experiences, challenges and barriers they face in achieving the lives they want.  
2. Psychiatric bed target numbers – Two research reports on the optimum number of psychiatric beds were published in 2022. The first was conducted by the RAND Corporation and projected the psychiatric bed need in California, by region and level of care, over the next five years. The second was an international effort conducted by a group of researchers from around the world and concluded that 60 beds per 100,000 population is the optimal number of psychiatric beds for a given community, and 30 beds per 100,000 population is the absolute minimum. These two new psychiatric bed capacity target research studies further validate Treatment Advocacy Center’s previous report on the subject, suggesting a given jurisdiction should have at least 40-60 inpatient psychiatric beds per 100,000 population to meet the needs of their community. 
3. 988 and suicide prevention – In July, the transition to 988 as the new number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline occurred. A preliminary report from the U.S Department of Health and Human Services highlighting the effectiveness of the 988 Suicide Crisis Lifeline found a 45% increase in service use compared to August 2021. There has also been a 72% decrease in service response time since the implementation of 988. These findings suggest that 988 is off to a successful start and has a lot of potential to increase the general public’s engagement with mental health counselors. 
4. Serious mental illness and violence – Violence risk in individuals with severe mental illness can be a divisive topic. On the one hand, advocates and the media respond to violent incidents involving someone with severe mental illness as evidence of the substantial risk for violent acts and the need for better treatment access to prevent violence. On the other hand, advocates proclaim that such associations are stigmatizing, and the vast majority of people with serious mental illness are not violent and are, in fact, more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. According to the research, both are true. New research published in JAMA Psychiatry this year confirms that most people with severe mental illness are not violent but also clearly indicates an increased risk for violent behavior in individuals with schizophrenia. 
5. Serious mental illness policy – In May’s edition of Health Affairs, I published a letter to the editor in response to a controversial article in the December 2021 edition of the publication by former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services employee Dr. Jeffrey Buck. His piece questioned the validity of utilizing serious mental illness as a policy construct in health policy in the United States. In my response, I argue that health policies for people with mental illness are different than those for people with serious mental illness, because serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have unique characteristics.  

Wishing you and your loved ones a safe, happy and healthy new year!  

Elizabeth Sinclair Hancq is the director of research at Treatment Advocacy Center.