An Observational Study of Proactive and On-Request Psychiatry Consultation Services: Evidence for Differing Roles and Outcomes.

BACKGROUND: Proactive psychiatric consultation services rapidly identify and assess medical inpatients in need of psychiatric care. In addition to more rapid contact, proactive services may reduce the length of stay and improve staff satisfaction. However, in some settings, it is impractical to integrate a proactive consultation service into every hospital unit; on-request and proactive services are likely to coexist in the future. Prior research has focused on changes in outcomes with the implementation of proactive services. OBJECTIVE AND METHODS: This report describes differences between contemporary proactive and on-request services within the same academic medical center, comparing demographic and clinical data collected retrospectively from a 4-year period from the electronic medical record. RESULTS: The proactive service saw patients over four times as many initial admissions (7592 vs. 1762), but transitions and handoffs between services were common, with 434 admissions involving both services, comprising nearly 20% of the on-request service's total contacts. The proactive service admissions had a shorter length of stay and a faster time to first psychiatric contact, and the patients seen were more likely to be female, of Black race, and to be publicly insured. There were over three times as many admissions to psychiatry from the proactive service. The on-request service's admissions had a longer length of stay, were much more likely to involve intensive care unit services, surgical services, and transfers among units, and the patients seen were more likely to die in the hospital or to be discharged to subacute rehabilitation. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the results suggest that the two services fulfill complementary roles, with the proactive service's rapid screening and contact providing care to a high volume of patients who might otherwise be unidentified and underserved. Simultaneously, the on-request service's ability to manage patients in response to consult requests over a much larger area of the hospital provided important support and continuity for patients with complex health needs. Institutions revising their consultation services will likely need to consider the best balance of these differing functions to address perceived demand for services.

Identifying the Most Important Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Publications in 2020 Using a Novel Literature Assessment Instrument.

BACKGROUND: As the science of consultation-liaison psychiatry advances, the Academy of Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry's Guidelines and Evidence-Based Medicine Subcommittee reviews articles of interest to help academy members remain familiar with the latest in evidence-based practice. OBJECTIVE: We identify the 10 most important articles for clinical practice in consultation-liaison psychiatry from 2020 using the new Importance and Quality instrument for assessing scientific literature. METHODS: The subcommittee published annotated abstracts for 97 articles on the academy website in 2020. Reviewers then rated all articles on clinical importance to practice and quality of scholarship using the Importance and Quality instrument. We describe the 10 articles with the highest aggregate scores and analyze the reliability of Importance and Quality instrument. RESULTS: Twenty-four raters identified the top 10 scoring articles of 2020. These articles provide practical guidance on key areas of consultation-liaison psychiatry including management of COVID-19, lithium treatment for complex patients, medical risks among patients with severe mental illness, and substance use disorders in medical settings. The assessment instrument demonstrated good to excellent interrater reliability. CONCLUSION: These articles offer valuable guidance for consultation-liaison psychiatrists regardless of their practice area. Collaborative literature reviews with standardized assessments help clinicians deliver evidence-based care and foster a high standard of practice across the specialty.

Baseline Insurance Status and Risk of Common Mental Disorders: A Propensity-Based Analysis of a Longitudinal U.S. Sample.

OBJECTIVE: Because of pervasive poor general medical and mental health status among patients receiving Medicaid, there has been substantial debate about whether Medicaid, as currently financed and delivered, is better than no insurance. The study aimed to address whether insurance status is associated with the subsequent incidence and persistence of common mental disorders. METHODS: Data came from a nationally representative U.S. population-based longitudinal survey that assessed mental disorders at two time points three years apart. Propensity score methods were used to adjust for potential confounding and to assess the association between three mutually exclusive insurance status groups (no insurance, private insurance only, and Medicaid only) and the subsequent incidence and persistence of mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders for persons ages 18-65 (N=26,410). RESULTS: Compared with private insurance, lack of insurance was associated with higher odds of both the incidence and persistence of substance use disorders and with higher odds of persistence of any mood or anxiety disorder. Compared with having private insurance, having Medicaid insurance was associated with increased odds of persistent mood and anxiety disorders during follow-up. Overall, findings did not significantly differ between the uninsured and Medicaid groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings do not support prior reports that U.S. adults with Medicaid have worse mental health outcomes than uninsured adults. Lacking insurance may put individuals at higher risk of developing substance use disorders, and uninsured individuals with preexisting mental conditions were more likely to have mood, anxiety, and substance use problems that persist over time.

The burden of mental disorders.

In the last decade, there has been an increase in interest in the burden of chronic and disabling health conditions that are not necessarily fatal, such as the mental disorders. This review systematically summarizes data on the burden associated with 11 major mental disorders of adults. The measures of burden include estimates of prevalence, mortality associated with the disorders, disabilities and impairments related to the disorders, and costs. This review expands the range of mental disorders considered in a report on the global burden of disease, updates the literature, presents information on the range and depth of sources of information on burden, and adds estimates of costs. The purpose is to provide an accessible guide to the burden of mental disorders, especially for researchers and policy makers who may not be familiar with this subfield of epidemiology.

Prevalence and correlates of hoarding behavior in a community-based sample.

Little is known about the prevalence and correlates of hoarding behavior in the community. We estimated the prevalence and evaluated correlates of hoarding in 742 participants in the Hopkins Epidemiology of Personality Disorder Study. The prevalence of hoarding was nearly 4% (5.3%, weighted) and was greater in older than younger age groups, greater in men than women, and inversely related to household income. Hoarding was associated with alcohol dependence; paranoid, schizotypal, avoidant, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorder traits; insecurity from home break-ins and excessive physical discipline before 16 years of age; and parental psychopathology. These findings suggest that hoarding may be relatively prevalent and that alcohol dependence, personality disorder traits, and specific childhood adversities are associated with hoarding in the community.

Prevention of anxiety disorders.

Anxiety disorders are very common and burdensome conditions with early onsets. Thus, there has recently been increasing interest in preventing these illnesses. In this article we review recent prevention studies targeting populations at varying levels of risk and conclude that prevention using cognitive-behavioural interventions is promising, though establishing longer-term effects and the cost-effectiveness of such interventions are important next steps for the field. We discuss conceptual and practical issues with regard to prevention of anxiety disorders and note that theory-based models of prevention which are based on identified risk and protective factors, address the optimal timing of intervention delivery, and articulate specific mechanisms of action are greatly needed.