RESEARCH WEEKLY: January Research Roundup
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
35% decline in inpatient beds and 24% increase in suicide rates.
Between 1998 and 2013, there has been an estimated 35% decline in the number and availability of inpatient psychiatric beds in the United States. In that same time period, there has been a 24% increase in the age-adjusted suicide rate in the population. Dr. Steve Sharfstein argues the loss of psychiatric beds and shortening of inpatient hospital stays has affected clinician’s ability to interrupt a suicidal impulse and the lack of capacity to take care of psychiatric emergencies has become a public health crisis.
RESEARCH of the month
Disparities in mental health care among Asian Americans.
Asian Americans have the lowest rate of mental health care access compared to other racial-ethnic groups. One hypothesis to explain this disparity is that Asian Americans do not access mental health care because they have a lower perceived unmet need of mental health services compared to other racial-ethnic groups. New research published this month in Psychiatric Services dispels this argument, however. The authors found that even among Asian Americans who said they were in need of mental health care, access and receipt of services was lower than for Caucasian Americans.
“Health care systems should strive to improve the cultural sensitivity of their mental health care to better serve Asian-American patients,” the authors write. The authors also suggest that future research should examine mental health awareness and treatment access among different subgroups of Asian Americans to develop more tailored approaches.
Lumateperone for short-term treatment of schizophrenia.
Lumateperone is an atypical anti-psychotic medication that was approved by the Federal Drug Adminstration (FDA) in late 2019 for the treatment of schizophrenia. Backed by more than 20 clinical trials that included almost 2,000 patients, Lumateperone has a new way of treating schizophrenia that differs from other antipsychotic medications. The drug works by modulating three neurotransmitters known to be involved in the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, serotonin, dopamine, and glutamate, while having limited effect on off-target receptors.
Results from a clinical trial of Lumateperone were published this month in JAMA Psychiatry, which suggests that the drug is effective in treating acute schizophrenia in adults while minimizing adverse effects. In a phase 3 randomized control trial of 450 patients with schizophrenia who were experiencing an acute exacerbation of psychotic symptoms, Lumateperone was found to be effective in reducing symptoms among patients after 28 days of once-daily administration. In addition, compared to control patients given a placebo, Lumateperone did not have any short-term adverse effects on motor, cardiometabolic or endocrine systems that other antipsychotic medications are known to have.
Note: The Treatment Advocacy Center does not accept funding from companies or entities involved in the sale, marketing or distribution of pharmaceutical products.
