Building fairer evidence on psychiatric medicines for underrepresented patient groups

Enrique Baca

Fundación Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria de la Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Spain

Evidence on psychiatric medicines often comes from clinical trials that do not fully represent groups including women of reproductive age, children and adolescents, older adults or people at high risk of suicide. This creates uncertainty among clinicians and patients. This project aims to produce more relevant evidence by studying real-world health records from Madrid’s universal healthcare system.

A team with expertise in psychiatry, epidemiology, data science and real-world evidence aims to develop and validate a scalable method that uses observational data to emulate the clinical trials, an approach used when traditional trials are not feasible or ethical. Using this approach, the researcher will evaluate treatment effectiveness, safety, persistence and healthcare resource use for high-priority clinical questions involving underrepresented groups.

By generating evidence for specific patient populations, the project could improve clinical decision-making, reduce inequalities in mental healthcare and inform future guidelines and policies. The resulting framework may also be adapted to other psychiatric conditions and health systems.

Target trial emulation to generate causal evidence for neglected mental health populations: children, reproductive-age women, elderly and self-harm

€150,000.00