- Persistent inequities in interventional psychiatry access and utilisation despite evidence and cost effectiveness, driven by geography, socioeconomic status, race and insurers' reluctance.
- Social determinants and structural barriers markedly limit access and utilisation, requiring targeted awareness, outreach and service distribution efforts to promote equity.
- Policy and payer reforms must keep coverage aligned with emerging safety and effectiveness evidence to achieve mental health parity in interventional treatments.
Curr Psychiatry Rep. 2026 Jul 16;28(1):52. doi: 10.1007/s11920-026-01703-2.
ABSTRACT
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: Mental health disorders are a significant public health problem with profound impacts on individual health, communities and society. Interventional approaches are limited in both utilization and access, despite their strong evidence base in specific disorders. The objective of this review is to describe factors and challenges influencing equity in interventional psychiatry.
RECENT FINDINGS: Mental health care inequities are pervasive and persistent. For interventional psychiatry tools, even with current evidence of interventions’ cost-effectiveness, inequities in access persist based on geographic context, socioeconomic status, and race, as well as insurers’ reluctance to cover some of them. A wide range of social factors impact access and utilization of interventional psychiatry tools. To ensure parity, we need strategies to increase awareness and to address access and utilization disparities found across these interventions, in addition to keeping up-to-date mental health coverage policies based on new safety and effectiveness evidence.
PMID:42461358 | DOI:10.1007/s11920-026-01703-2
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