A systematic review of persons of color participation in first episode psychosis coordinated specialty care randomized controlled trials in North America

The population of persons of color (POC) are increasing in the United States. Unfortunately, POC are significantly impacted by serious mental illness; psychosis represents a mental health disparity among POC. Fortunately, first episode coordinated specialty care (CSC) is an effective treatment for individuals who are in the early phases of a psychotic disorder. This systematic review of the literature examined POC inclusion rates in randomized controlled trials (RCT) examining First Episode Psychosis (FEP) programs. Our review yielded seven articles that met inclusion criteria. Our findings were mixed-researchers conducting RCTs on FEP programs did an excellent job including African American participants suggesting that findings from RCTs on FEP programs may generalize to African American participants. Regarding Latines, they were broadly underrepresented in RCTs on FEP CSC. Based on the data, we cannot definitively conclude to what extent findings from RCTs on FEP CSC generalize to Latines although results from studies that included a reasonable number of Latines offer promising results. Asians were overrepresented in three of the seven studies included in this review; thus it seems that the findings from RCTs on FEP CSC generalize to the Asian population in the United States.