Citation

van der Ven E, Susser E, Dixon LB, Olfson M, Gilmer TP. Psychiatr. Serv. 2020; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Affiliation

Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York (van der Ven, Susser); School for Mental Health and Neuroscience, Maastricht University, Maastricht, the Netherlands (van der Ven); New York State Psychiatric Institute, New York (Susser, Dixon, Olfson); Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York (Dixon, Olfson); Department of Family Medicine and Public Health, University of California, San Diego, and OptumLabs, Cambridge, Massachusetts (Gilmer).

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, American Psychiatric Association)

DOI

10.1176/appi.ps.201900301

PMID

31931683

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to investigate racial-ethnic differences in use of mental health services and antipsychotic medication in the year following the recent onset of a psychotic disorder and to examine the role of household income as a proxy for socioeconomic status.

METHODS: Deidentified administrative claims data from the OptumLabs Data Warehouse were used to identify 8,021 commercially insured individuals ages 14 through 30 with a recent-onset psychotic disorder (January 1, 2011, through December 31, 2015). The authors compared mental health service use among African-American (11.5%), Hispanic (11.0%), and non-Hispanic white (77.4%) individuals during the year following an index diagnosis and adjusted these analyses for household income.

RESULTS: The probability of any use of outpatient mental health services was lower among African-American (67.4%±1.4%) and Hispanic individuals (66.5%±1.5%) compared with non-Hispanic white patients (72.3%±0.6%; p<0.05 for each comparison). Among those who used services, African-American and Hispanic individuals had fewer mean outpatient mental health visits per year compared with non-Hispanic whites (9.7±0.7 and 10.2±0.7 versus 14.3±0.5, respectively, p<0.001 for each comparison). These racial-ethnic differences in service use remained after adjustment for household income.

CONCLUSIONS: Among young, commercially insured individuals using outpatient services following an index diagnosis of psychotic disorder, African Americans and Hispanics received less intensive outpatient mental health care than their non-Hispanic white counterparts. Amid the upsurge of early intervention programs, special attention should be paid to increasing access to mental health services for racial-ethnic minority groups.

Language: en

Keywords

Early intervention; Ethnicity; First episode psychosis; Psychoses; Race; Service use