Addressing the Increasing Mental Health Distress and Mental Illness Among Young Adults in the United States.

ABSTRACT: Recent surveys show rising numbers of young people who report anxiety and depression. Although much attention has focused on mental health of adolescent youth, less attention has been paid to young people as they transition into adulthood. Multiple factors may have contributed to this steady increase: greater exposure to social media, information, and distressing news via personal electronic devices; increased concerns regarding social determinants of health and climate change; and changing social norms due to increased mental health literacy and reduced stigma. The COVID-19 pandemic may have temporarily exacerbated symptoms and impacted treatment availability. Strategies to mitigate causal factors for depression and anxiety in young adults may include education and skills training for cognitive, behavioral, and social coping strategies, as well as healthier use of technology and social media. Policies must support the availability of health insurance and treatment, and clinicians can adapt interventions to encompass the specific concerns and needs of young adults.

Structural Racism and Psychiatric Practice: A Call for Sustained Change.

ABSTRACT: Structural racism has received renewed focus over the past year, fueled by the convergence of major political and social events. Psychiatry as a field has been forced to confront a legacy of systemic inequities. Here, we use examples from our clinical and supervisory work to highlight the urgent need to integrate techniques addressing racial identity and racism into psychiatric practice and teaching. This urgency is underlined by extensive evidence of psychiatry's long-standing systemic inequities. We argue that our field suffers not from a lack of available techniques, but rather a lack of sustained commitment to understand and integrate those techniques into our work; indeed, there are multiple published examples of strategies to address racism and racial identity in psychiatric clinical practice. We conclude with recommendations geared toward more firmly institutionalizing a focus on racism and racial identity in psychiatry, and suggest applications of existing techniques to our initial clinical examples.

Psychiatry in the Time of COVID: Credibility, Uncertainty, and Self-Reflection.

ABSTRACT: Public trust in the credibility of medicine and physicians has been severely tested amid the COVID-19 pandemic and growing sociopolitical fissures in the United States. Physicians are being asked to be ambassadors to the public of scientific information. Psychiatrists have an opportunity to help the public understand and accept a "new normal" during a time of such uncertainty. Using a case example, we review the impact of uncertainty and fear on scientific and medical credibility. Although the pandemic provides an opportunity for systemic change, the consequences of any change remain unknown. To help patients navigate the uncertainty, we conclude by offering four guidelines to clinicians: the public has little interest in understanding the scientific method; we need to acknowledge that we do not have all the answers; credibility and trustworthiness are linked to our ability to be trusted, believable messengers; and we can retain scientific credibility while acknowledging uncertainty.

Telehealth and the Community SMI Population: Reflections on the Disrupter Experience of COVID-19.

The novel coronavirus pandemic and the resulting expanded use of telemedicine have temporarily transformed community-based care for individuals with serious mental illness (SMI), challenging traditional treatment paradigms. We review the rapid regulatory and practice shifts that facilitated broad use of telemedicine, the literature on the use of telehealth and telemedicine for individuals with SMI supporting the feasibility/acceptability of mobile interventions, and the more limited evidence-based telemedicine practices for this population. We provide anecdotal reflections on the opportunities and challenges for telemedicine drawn from our daily experiences providing services and overseeing systems for this population during the pandemic. We conclude by proposing that a continued, more prominent role for telemedicine in the care of individuals with SMI be sustained in the post-coronavirus landscape, offering future directions for policy, technical assistance, training, and research to bring about this change.

How the DSM Is Used in Clinical Practice.

Despite widespread use, how clinicians use the DSM in psychiatric practice is not well understood. Recognizing public and professional attitudes toward the DSM are integral to future DSM development, to assess a commonly held assumption such as that the DSM is used primarily for coding, and to assess its clinical utility. A convenience sample of Psychiatric Times readers was surveyed to assess the DSM's use in clinical practice. A total of 394 behavioral health care practitioners fully completed the online survey. Results suggest that the DSM, beyond administrative and billing use, is used for communication with health care providers, for teaching diagnoses to trainees, and, importantly, as an educational tool to inform patients and caregivers alike.

Adaptation in Delivering Integrated Care: The Tension Between Care and Evidence-Based Practice.

Clinical practice is assumed to be informed and supported by evidence-based clinical research. Nonetheless, clinical practice often deviates from the research evidence base, sometimes leading and sometimes lagging. Two examples from integrated care in mental health care (care for serious mental illness and collaborative mental health care in primary care settings) illustrate the natural space and therefore tension between evidence and implementation that needs to be better understood. Using the tools and perspectives of both examples, the authors present a framework for the connected relationship between practice and research that is founded on measurement and uses iterative adaptation guided by oversight of and feedback from the stakeholders in this process.

Why We Need to Enhance Suicide Postvention: Evaluating a Survey of Psychiatrists' Behaviors after the Suicide of a Patient.

Suicide prevention efforts are increasing to enhance capabilities and better understand risk factors and etiologies. Postvention, or how clinicians manage the postsuicide aftermath, strengthens suicide prevention, destigmatizes the tragedy, operationalizes the confusing aftermath, and promotes caregiver recovery. However, studies regarding its efficacy are minimal. The Psychopathology Committee of the Group for the Advancement for Psychiatry surveyed a convenience sample of psychiatrists to better understand postvention activities. Ninety psychiatrists completed the survey; they were predominantly men (72%) with an average of 24.6 years of experience (SD, 16.7 years). Most had contact with the patient's family within 6 months of the suicide, and most psychiatrists sought some form of support. Few psychiatrists used a suicide postvention procedure or toolkit (9%). No psychiatrists stopped clinical practice after a patient suicide, although 10% stopped accepting patients they deemed at risk of suicide. Postvention efforts, therefore, should be improved to better address survivor care.

Should full adherence be a necessary goal in schizophrenia? Full versus non-full adherence to antipsychotic treatment.

There is solid evidence of negative consequences of non-adherence in schizophrenia, and recently adherence has been defined as taking more than 80% of prescribed medication. However, the clinical relevance of different degrees of adherence in adherent patients has not been studied. We evaluated sociodemographic, clinical, treatment-related and psychopathological variables in 78 adherent outpatients with schizophrenia, who were classified into two groups: full-adherence (100% adherence) and non-full adherence (80-99.9%). Adherence was evaluated using electronic monitoring (MEMS®), and the injection record in case of injectable antipsychotics. Non-full adherence patients showed more extensive delusions and guilt feelings, as well as trends toward greater somatic concern, disorientation, general psychopathology, and lower number of prior psychiatric hospitalizations. These finding suggest that the 'fullness' of adherence to antipsychotic treatment is a relevant issue, impacting the psychopathological state of adherent patients with schizophrenia. We found that a large proportion of patients can achieve full adherence, and while 'adherence' is an appropriate objective to be pursued with non-adherent patients, 'full adherence' should be the goal among adherent patients.

Anxiety comorbidity in schizophrenia.

Diagnostic and treatment hierarchical reductionisms have led to an oversight of anxiety syndromes in schizophrenia. Nevertheless, recent data have indicated that anxiety can be a significant source of morbidity in this patient group. This paper reviews current knowledge concerning anxiety comorbidity in schizophrenia, its epidemiology, course, and treatment. A computerized search of the literature published from 1966 to July 2012 was conducted on Medline. Comorbid anxiety disorders are present in 38.3% of subjects with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. The most common anxiety disorder is social phobia followed by post-traumatic stress disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder. The presence and severity of symptoms of anxiety are associated with more severe clinical features and poorer outcomes. Available literature on the treatment consists primarily of case reports and open trials. Fragments of data support the notion of treating these anxiety states and syndromes as co-occurring clinical conditions with adjunctive medications and psychosocial interventions. However, additional work remains to be done on this issue before firm conclusions can be drawn.

Empirical support for DSM-IV schizoaffective disorder: clinical and cognitive validators from a large patient sample.

OBJECTIVE: The diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder has long maintained an uncertain status in psychiatric nosology. Studies comparing clinical and biological features of patients with schizoaffective disorder to patients with related disorders [e.g., schizophrenia and bipolar disorder] can provide an evidence base for judging the validity of the diagnostic category. However, because most prior studies of schizoaffective disorder have only evaluated differences between groups at a static timepoint, it is unclear how these disorders may be related when the entire illness course is taken into consideration. METHODS: We ascertained a large cohort [N = 993] of psychiatric patients with a range of psychotic diagnoses including schizophrenia with no history of major affective episodes [SZ-; N = 371], schizophrenia with a superimposed mood syndrome [SZ+; N = 224], schizoaffective disorder [SAD; N = 129] and bipolar I disorder with psychotic features [BPD+; N = 269]. Using cross-sectional data we designed key clinical and neurocognitive dependent measures that allowed us to test longitudinal hypotheses about the differences between these diagnostic entities. RESULTS: Large differences between diagnostic groups on several demographic and clinical variables were observed. Most notably, groups differed on a putative measure of cognitive decline. Specifically, the SAD group demonstrated significantly greater post-onset cognitive decline compared to the BP+ group, with the SZ- and SZ+ group both exhibiting levels of decline intermediate to BPD+ and SAD. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that schizoaffective disorder may possess distinct features. Contrary to earlier formulations, schizoaffective disorder may be a more severe form of illness.

Hopelessness and suicidal risk in bipolar disorder. A study in clinically nonsyndromal patients.

OBJECTIVE: Attempted suicide and death due to suicide are not uncommon among patients with bipolar disorder. Although some risk factors for suicidality in bipolar patients have been identified, little is known about hopelessness and other possible trait or diathesis-related factors. Consequently, the objective of this study was to investigate variables associated with suicidal risk in clinically nonsyndromal bipolar patients. METHODS: A sample of 102 outpatients with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder according to International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision criteria during nonsyndromal stage were evaluated. On the basis of suicidal history, patients were divided into suicide attempt, suicidal ideation, and nonsuicidal groups. Sociodemographic, clinical, and psychopathological variables were assessed. RESULTS: As compared with the nonsuicidal group, female sex, combined psychopharmacologic treatment, and hopelessness were independently associated with suicide attempt. Hopelessness and insight into having a mental disorder were independently associated with history of suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with bipolar disorder and suicidal history are characterized by the presence of hopelessness, which probably confers greater vulnerability for suicidal behavior in the presence of stress factors. This identification of the risk profile for suicidal behavior in nonsyndromal bipolar patients adds complementary information to risk factors established for suicidality during acute phases of the disease, allows for differentiated preventive and treatment approaches of patients at risk, and suggests psychotherapy as an advisable intervention in this group of patients.

Rational protection of subjects in research and quality improvement activities.

This Open Forum illuminates shortcomings with the basis for determining degree of oversight of health services research and quality improvement activities. Using a federally regulated definition of research rather than a direct appraisal of risk to patients can misallocate effort from activities with higher risk for patients to those with lower risk. The case of the Johns Hopkins multicenter study of central line safety checklists in intensive care units is cited. Definitions of research promulgated by the Office of Human Research Protection are reviewed, and an alternative model based on patient risk is proposed. Suggestions for how quality improvement work fits into the larger paradigm of research are made.

Implementing standardized assessments in clinical care: now's the time.

In this Open Forum the Committee on Psychopathology within the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry (GAP) strongly encourages clinicians and health systems to implement standardized assessments of patients' outcomes for mental disorders, particularly disorders such as depression. The GAP committee describes how calls for the regular use of standardized scales in clinical settings naturally follow from the development and dissemination of treatment guidelines. It discusses the challenges involved in implementing routine outcome measures in clinical settings and explains why the advantages of measurement-based care make addressing these challenges worthwhile. Finally, the committee makes practical suggestions for clinicians and systems attempting to implement routine outcome measures in their clinics.