ROCKVILLE, MD. – The problem of medical comorbidities in people with serious mental illness (SMI) persists and must be addressed, researchers said at a National Institute on Mental Health conference on mental health services research. Part of that effort, they said, is a more careful consideration of risks tied to the off-label use of second-generation antipsychotics.
Courtesy Dr. Joshua Breslau
Dr. Joshua Breslau
The researchers discussed strategies aimed at combating obesity and diabetes, as well as behaviors such as smoking and sedentary lifestyle.
“One of the things that jumps out is the tremendous need for evidence-based strategies to address these physical health problems that are common in general population but even more of a burden for people with serious mental illness,” said Susan T. Azrin, PhD, of the NIMH, in an interview.
A study published in 2015, estimated that people with schizophrenia, for example, might lose almost 30 years of life because of premature death. Individuals with serious mental illness also experience elevated morbidity from cardiovascular disease and cancer. The NIMH and other federal agencies have in recent years looked for ways to help people with SMI quit smoking, and better control their weight and cholesterol.
But approaches that sound promising for boosting physical fitness in this group of patients have not always proven successful. Joshua Breslau, PhD, ScD, of the Rand Corp. discussed findings from a 2014 paper where he and his colleagues reported somewhat disappointing results from a study of federal Primary and Behavioral Health Care Integration grants.
The researchers matched clinics receiving this funding with similar ones that did not. They found that people with mental illness treated at the clinics receiving the grants showed improvements in some indicators of physical health (diastolic blood pressure, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, and fasting plasma glucose) but not in others (systolic blood pressure, body mass index, HDL cholesterol, hemoglobin A1c, triglycerides, self-reported smoking). Dr. Breslau said he and his colleagues also found only limited benefits in quality of care for physical health conditions associated with the grant program. Still, he remains hopeful.
“There is some potential here,” Dr. Breslau said. “Sometimes, we are seeing positive effects, but it’s certainly not a slam-dunk.”
He noted that opening a new setting for primary care services could strain a workforce that’s already in short supply. In addition, he said, attempts to fold primary care services into mental health programs could, in some cases, result in replication of care of chronic conditions for certain patients with SMI.
We “may still not reach that portion of the target population that has the greatest need,” Dr. Breslau said in an interview. “The new services may turn out to be duplicative rather than filling a gap.”
In another session, Gail L. Daumit, MD, MHS, of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, discussed her plan to build on a past success in helping people with SMI lose weight.
In the ACHIEVE (Achieving Healthy Lifestyles In Psych Rehabilitation) trial, Dr. Daumit and her colleagues found that people enrolled in an intervention group lost an average of 3.2 kg more than did a control group after 18 months (N Engl J Med. 2013;368:1594-602). The intervention steps included alternating group and individual weight management sessions, on-site group physical activity three times weekly, and weigh-ins. The study had 291 patients who were randomized between the control and intervention groups.
that can be used more broadly. She’s seeking to scale up effective interventions to address cardiovascular risk factors in people with SMI.
“Our goal is not just to get process-of-care measures like ‘counseling was delivered,’ ‘a medicine was started,’ but to actually show impact on health outcomes,” Dr. Daumit said.