A Systematic Review of Chronic Disease Self-Management Interventions for Adults with Serious Mental illness

Objective: While there is strong evidence in support of chronic disease self-management programs (CDSM), much less is available with regard to individuals living with serious mental illness. The objectives of this systematic review are to identify and appraise chronic disease self-management studies tested with samples of U.S. adults living with SMI. We include an appraisal of methodological quality of the CDSM studies that met our final criteria. Methods: Systematic search methods were utilized to identify research published before 2012 that describe CDSM outcomes for adults with SMI. Results: Eighteen unduplicated articles were identified that included outcomes of CDSM studies, while ten met all inclusion criteria. Favorable treatment effects were observed for adults with SMI across ten studies that took place in different types of clinical settings.  CDSM studies that met all search criteria had a wide range of methodological quality, indicating that this is a nascent field of study. Conclusion: Given the high chronic disease burden experienced by individuals with SMI combined with our nations health care reform, emphasis on self-management to improve population health, coupled with advancing the quality of research to evaluate CDSM programs for adults with SMI is critically needed.