Professor Takahiro Nemoto and his research group from the Department of Psychiatry and Neurology at Toho University Faculty of Medicine, in collaboration with Visiting Professor Janice Tsoh from the University of California San Francisco Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, who was invited under the “FY2023 Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Invitation Fellowship Programs for Research in Japan (Long-term),” investigated the factors contributing to early self-discontinuation of psychiatric treatment among foreign residents. The study revealed how patients’ language proficiency influences early self-discontinuation of treatment. One notable finding was that relying solely on observed Japanese conversational fluency is insufficient for young patients in mental health care, highlighting the need for proper language assessment and language support services to reduce treatment dropout. These research findings were published in the international academic journal “ BMJ Mental Health” on July 4, 2024.
Key Points of the Announcement
The graph illustrates the interaction between language and age on early treatment dropouts among foreign residents, represented with scatter plots and trend lines. Orange circles denote Japanese-speaking migrants, while grey triangles indicate non-Japanese-speaking migrants who used language support at their treatment visits. The trend lines are depicted with orange and black dotted lines for Japanese and non-Japanese speakers, respectively. The horizontal axis represents age, and the vertical axis shows the predicted rate of early treatment dropout. The data reveals that younger Japanese-speaking migrants (shown in orange) had higher rates of dropping out of mental health treatment early. In contrast, this trend was not observed among non-Japanese speakers (shown in grey and black).
Source: “Figure 2. Interaction effect between language and age on early discontinuation (within first 3 months) of mental health outpatient treatment: mean predicted probability of early discontinuation by age and language” from Tsoh JY, Takubo Y, Fukui E, Suzuki A, Iwai M, Saito H, Tsujino N, Uchino T, Katagiri N, Nemoto T. Exploring Early Discontinuation of Mental Health Outpatient Treatment: Language, Demographics, and Clinical Characteristics Among Migrant Populations in Japan. BMJ Ment Health. 2024. Epub 7/3/2024. doi: 10.1136/bmjment-1014-301059. Reprint with permission
Journal
BMJ Mental Health (July 4, 2024)
Title
Exploring Early Discontinuation of Mental Health Outpatient Treatment: Language Demographics and Clinical Characteristics Among Migrant Populations in Japan
Authors
Janice Tsoh, Youji Takubo, Eriko Fukui, Ayaka Suzuki, Momoko Iwai, Hisaaki Saito, Naohisa Tsujino, Takashi Uchino, Naoyuki Katagiri, Takahiro Nemoto*
DOI Number
10.1136/bmjment-2024-301059
BMJ Mental Health
Observational study
People
Exploring early discontinuation of mental health outpatient treatment: language, demographics and clinical characteristics among migrant populations in Japan
3-Jul-2024
All authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be constructed as a potential conflict of interest.