Using Digital Media Advertising to Reduce the Duration of Untreated Psychosis

First Episode Psychosis, Schizophrenia

There is compelling evidence that longer duration of untreated psychosis independently predicts negative outcomes. The proposal aims to explore whether targeted and proactive online outreach through search engine advertisements, coupled with engaging, informative, and interactive online resources, can effectively reduce the duration of untreated psychosis and facilitate earlier treatment initiation in New York State. Results from this initiative will be critical to informing the subsequent design and conduct of larger, focused, and proactive digital media campaigns targeting patient with First Episode Psychosis and their caregivers online, intended to accelerate linkage to care and reduce the duration of untreated psychosis throughout the U.S.

Approximately 100,000 individuals in the Unites States experience a first episode of psychosis (FEP) each year. Psychotic symptoms typically emerge during formative years of adolescence and young adult development and interfere with the establishment of healthy educational, vocational, and social foundations. Despite the severity of symptoms and significant decline in functioning, the time between symptom onset and receiving appropriate care in the U.S. is alarmingly lengthy. Longer Duration of Untreated Psychosis (DUP) has been shown to independently predict negative outcomes, including poorer response to treatment, worse global, vocational, social, and cognitive functioning, greater risk of relapse, higher symptom severity, and poorer quality of life. Prior successful DUP reduction initiatives have utilized various marketing strategies to educate the community about early intervention services, however these strategies are expensive, inefficient, and outdated. Targeted online outreach, supported by technological innovation, offers the prospect of proactively reaching individuals earlier in the course of illness development, as well as individuals who might not otherwise come into contact with traditional referral sources. In response to this challenge, Northwell Health's early psychosis research team is collaborating with Strong365, a nonprofit initiative dedicated to raising early psychosis intervention awareness, to develop and test a proactive and targeted comprehensive digital media marketing campaign designed to facilitate help-seeking and encourage treatment initiation in prospective patients with FEP and their caregivers. Investigators will take advantage of search engine advertisements, which allow advertisers (researchers) to select keywords/phrases and create linked ads appearing as a strategically placed search result. Dedicated ads will appear in response to online search queries conducted by prospective patients and their caregivers throughout New York State (NYS) that align with the campaign's pre-selected keywords/phrases. Individuals who click on the ads will be immediately directed to a landing page/website, and offered a variety of innovative and interactive online engagement tools intended to instantly connect users with specialty care staff and to facilitate earlier treatment initiation. Campaign referrals will be centralized and individuals with FEP will be enrolled into OnTrackNY (OTNY), a network of 21 dedicated early psychosis intervention programs throughout NYS. The campaign will target individuals as well as their caregivers, searching for psychosis-related terms or information online. Investigators will measure the DUP of individuals enrolled into OTNY before and after campaign activation and track the impact of the campaign on the number of FEP referrals and number of patients admitted to OTNY in NYS. Furthermore, investigators aim to identify the campaign target audience most effective at promoting treatment initiation as well as the online tools and resources most effective at encouraging treatment initiation for individuals with FEP. Investigators will additionally explore the online trajectories to care of individuals with FEP engaging with the campaign.

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