Table 1.
Summary table of included articles.
| Reference | Publication year | Type of study | Descriptions/definitions of severe and persistent mental illness in the source literature |
|---|---|---|---|
| Schinnar et al. (2) | 1990 | Empirical | cf. table 1, p. 1604–1605 |
| Schinnar et al. (1) | 1991 | Empirical | “We select the state definitions of Pennsylvania (PA), New Jersey (N J), New York (NY) because of their geographic contiguity and their use of a SPMI definition to guide the selection of clients for case management programs.” |
| Veltro et al. (31) | 1993 | Empirical | “In the present paper the severely and persistently mentally ill, also called ‘continuing care clients’, are defined as ‘people with a two-year history of mental illness or in treatment for two years or more’ (6).” |
| Durham et al. (26) | 1994 | Empirical | “This article is concerned with one of the most challenging of those high risk populations: persons with chronic, severe mental illness (SMI). These individuals are defined by the National Institute of Mental Health as having nonorganic psychoses and personality disorders accompanied by major limitations in life activities over a prolonged period of time, thus requiring long term treatment (2, 41).” |
| Wasylenki et al. (40) | 1994 | Theoretical | “Severe mental illnesses are defined by diagnosis, disability, and duration (2). Diagnostically they usually include schizophrenic disorders, major affective disorders, and severe personality disorders. In a subpopulation of persons suffering from these disorders, significant disability occurs to the extent that individuals are unable to function in normal social and vocational roles. And finally, a further subpopulation of those who are ill and disabled are chronically afflicted, as measured by duration of symptoms, length of disability, and hospitalization episodes. These three overlapping dimensions—diagnosis, disability, and duration—provide a frame- work by which to delineate the population of severely, persistently mentally ill people in any jurisdiction.” |
| Rothbard et al. (3) | 1996 | Empirical | NIMH (6); Schinnar et al. (2); Schinnar et al.(1) |
| Chandler et al. (25) | 1997 | Empirical | “The ISAs recruited adults with severe and persistent mental illness into the study group. Study participants had to have a DSM-III-R diagnosis, a functional disability due to the diagnosis, and eligibility for public benefits as a result of the disability.” |
| Draine et al. (33) | 1997 | Empirical | “Serious and persistent mental illness is defined as a diagnosis of schizophrenia or a major affective disorder, resulting in lifelong disabling conditions that impair personal and social functioning.” [source of definition unclear] |
| Slade et al. (4) | 1997 | Empirical | cf. table 3, p. 179 |
| Hilburger et al. (27) | 1999 | Empirical | “For this study, a person with severe and persistent mental illness was defined as someone with a DSM-IV Axis I or Axis II diagnosis and who was currently a participant in a psychiatric rehabilitation program.” |
| Ruggeri et al. (5) | 2000 | Empirical | NIMH (6); Schinnar et al. (2) |
| Yamada et al. (32) | 2000 | Empirical | “Severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) has been defined in terms of diagnosis, disability, and duration of a mental disorder (42). [… ] The priority population for mental health services consisted of SPMI adults with schizophrenia, major depression, or manic depressive disorder, or other severely disabling mental disorders which require crisis resolution or ongoing and long-term support and treatment.” |
| Parabiaghi et al. (29) | 2006 | Empirical | “For the purpose of the present study, we have adopted the two-dimensional definition of SMI proposed by Ruggeri et al. (5): any mental disorder, GAF ≤ 50 and duration of service contact ≥ 2 yrs. A dichotomous classification of psychiatric diagnosis was used, ‘psychotic’ (including the PCR diagnosis of Schizophrenia and functional psychoses and Severe affective disorders) versus ‘non-psychotic’ (including all other PCR diagnoses) cases.” |
| Pasmeny et al. (30) | 2008 | Empirical | “Participants met the diagnostic eligibility criteria of SPMI set forth by Parabiaghi et al. (29) and Schinnar et al. (2), which cover diagnosis, duration of illness and severity of disability.” |
| Woods et al. (15) | 2008 | Empirical | “While the definition remains open for review, SPMI includes people aged 18 years and older who suffer from a prolonged or recurrent mental illness, are impaired in activities of daily living, and require long-term treatment (5, 43).” |
| Hsiao et al. (28) | 2009 | Empirical | “The National Institute of Mental Health (6) defines SPMI using the following criteria: (a) a diagnosis of non-organic psychosis or personality disorder; (b) duration of at least 2 years; and (c) at least three of the following five categories of functional disabilities: dangerous or disturbing behavior, mild impairment in activities of daily living and basic needs, moderate impairment in social functioning, moderate impairment in performance at work, and moderate impairment in non-work activities.” |
| Arvidsson et al. (24) | 2009 | Empirical | “The definition of SMI used by the National Board was a person with a mental illness that causes a disability to the degree that it influences daily life. Only persons over 18 years were included. The impairment should have lasted for at least 6 months. Persons with mental retardation and age dementia were excluded (44).” |
| Koekkoek et al. (35) | 2009 | Empirical | “We limit the group of non-psychotic chronic patients to those with a severe mental illness (SMI), using the broad definition of Ruggeri et al. (5). This includes all patients that have been in psychiatric care longer than two years and that have a GAF-score at or below 50.” |
| Torres (38) | 2011 | Theoretical | “The term serious and persistent mental illness (SPMI) was promulgated by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) during its efforts to formulate a consensus definition (2, 45).” |
| Terpstra & Terpstra (12) | 2012 | Theoretical | “Woods, Willison, Kington, and Gavin (15) defined people with SPMI as those 18 and older who experience prolonged or recurrent mental illness, are impaired in activities of daily living, and require long-term treatment.” |
| Moonen et al. (11) | 2016 | Empirical | Ruggeri et al. (5), Woods et al. (15) |
| Trachsel et al. (13) | 2016 | Theoretical | Ruggeri et al. (5), Woods et al. (15) |
| Isaacs et al. (34) | 2017 | Empirical | “Individuals are said to have severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) when they have ‘severe symptoms or severe difficulty in social, occupational or school functioning’ together with treatment that has lasted for 2 years or more (5).” |
| Kinter (37) | 2017 | Theoretical | Goldman et al. (42), Parabiaghi et al. (29) |
| Banfield et al. (36) | 2018 | Empirical | Partners in Recovery (PIR) (46) |
| Butler et al. (8) | 2018 | Empirical | “SPMI is generally defined in the literature as prolonged or recurrent mental illness experienced by people 18 years and older [e.g., (12)]. Common diagnoses within this population include schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, some personality disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, and anorexia nervosa (15).” |
| Elie et al. (10) | 2018 | Empirical | “SPMI was defined as any DSM-5 mental illness diagnosed for at least 2 years resulting in serious functional impairment (6). Although there are several definitions for SPMI (5), we adapted the definition used by the National Institute of Mental Health, given its inclusive nature.” |
| Trachsel (39) | 2018 | Theoretical | “The authors defined SPMI as “any DSM-5 mental illness diagnosed for at least 2 years resulting in serious functional impairment (10)“. |
| Brown et al. (7) | 2019 | Empirical | “SPMI refers to adults with prolonged functional impairment from conditions such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression and some personality disorders (8, 47, 48).” |
| Donald et al. (9) | 2019 | Empirical | “Severe persistent mental illnesses (SPMIs) are those that are prolonged and recurrent, impair activities of daily living, and require long-term treatment (15). Common diagnoses include schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depression (15).” |
GAF, Global Assessment of Functioning; ISA, Integrated Service Agency; PCR, Psychiatric Case Register; SMI, severe mental illness/serious mental illness; SPMI, severe persistent mental illness.