Differential spatial-social accessibility to mental health care and suicide.

In recent years, the United States has been experiencing historically high suicide rates. In the face of mental health care provider shortages that leave millions needing to travel longer to find providers with schedule openings, if any are available at all, the inaccessibility of mental health care has become increasingly central in explaining suicidality. To examine the relationship between access to care and suicide, we leverage a dataset mapping all licensed US psychiatrists and psychotherapists (N= 711,214), as of early 2020, and employ real-world transportation data to model patients' mobility barriers. We find a strong association between reduced mental health care provider spatial-social accessibility and heightened suicide risk. Using a machine learning approach to condition on a host of 22 contextual factors known to be implicated in suicide (e.g., race, education, divorce, gun shop prevalence), we find that in locales where individuals seeking care can access fewer mental health care providers, already more likely to be saturated by demand, suicide risk is increased (3.2% for each reduced SD of psychiatrist accessibility; 2.3% for psychotherapists). Additionally, we observe that local spatial-social accessibility inequalities are associated with further heightened risk of suicide, underscoring the need for research to account for the highly localized barriers preventing many Americans from accessing needed mental health services.

Trends in Outpatient Psychotherapy Provision by U.S. Psychiatrists: 1996-2016.

OBJECTIVE: Previous work has demonstrated significant declines in the provision of outpatient psychotherapy by U.S. psychiatrists. The objective of this study was to characterize patterns and trends of psychotherapy by U.S. psychiatrists from 1996 to 2016. METHODS: A retrospective, nationally representative analysis of psychiatrist visits from 21 waves of the U.S. National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey between 1996 and 2016 (N=29,673) was conducted to assess rates of outpatient psychotherapy provision by U.S. psychiatrists. Provision was modeled as risk differences and adjusted by clinical, sociodemographic, geographic, and financial characteristics. RESULTS: Between 1996 and 2016, the weighted percentage of visits involving psychotherapy declined significantly from 44.4% in 1996-1997 to 21.6% in 2015-2016. Declines were most marked among patients diagnosed with social phobia (29% to 8%), dysthymic disorder (65% to 30%), and personality disorders (68% to 17%). For patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, psychotherapy provision remained stable (10%-12%). In the 2010-2016 period, about half of psychiatrists (53%) no longer provided psychotherapy at all. Antidepressant, antipsychotic, and sedative-hypnotic prescriptions were negatively associated with psychotherapy provision. During the study period, sociodemographic disparities grew, with older, White patients residing in metropolitan areas in the Northeast or West increasingly becoming the most likely to receive psychotherapy. Self-pay predicted access to solo-practice psychiatrists, who saw fewer patients but more frequently, and were more likely to provide psychotherapy. CONCLUSIONS: Previously reported declines in psychiatrist provision of psychotherapy continued through 2016, affecting nearly all clinical categories. In the 2010s, about half of psychiatrists practiced no psychotherapy at all, creating new challenges to the integration of neurobiological and psychosocial elements of clinical care.