Randomized Trial of Achieving Healthy Lifestyles in Psychiatric Rehabilitation (ACHIEVE)

The ACHIEVE trial enrolled 291 overweight or obese adults from 10 community psychiatric rehabilitation outpatient programs in Maryland. The intervention group received group and individual weight management sessions and group exercise sessions for 18-months and at study end, lost 7 pounds compared to the control group.

The ACHIEVE trial won the Society of General Internal Medicine (SGIM)’s Best Published Research Paper of the Year Award for 2013, and the Society for Clinical Trials Trial of the Year Award for 2013 (https://www.sctweb.org/toty.cfm). The study was also featured in a New York Times article.

Wide implementation of healthy weight interventions, like ACHIEVE, are needed for persons with serious mental illness. The ALACRITY core pilot study Adapting an Evidence-Based Weight Loss Intervention and Testing Strategies to Increase Implementation in Community Mental Health Programs will take important steps to translating and scaling up ACHIEVE for broad dissemination. (R01MH080964)

Investigators

• Gail Daumit, MD, MHS, Principal Investigator

• Lawrence Appel, MD, MPH

• Cheryl Anderson, PhD

• Sarah Casagrande, PhD

• Jeanne Charleston, RN

• Rosa Crum, MD, MHS

• Arlene Dalcin, RD, MS

• Faith Dickerson, PhD, MPH

• Kevin Frick, PhD

• Joseph Gennusa, PhD, RD, LDN

• Eliseo Guallar, MD, DrPH, MPH

• Gerald Jerome, PhD

• Nae-Yuh Wang, PhD 

• Deborah Young, PhD

Publications

• Effects of a behavioral weight loss intervention among people with serious mental illness and diabetes (Tseng et al., Diabetes Care, 2019)

• Effects of a behavioral weight loss intervention in people with serious mental illness: Subgroup analyses from the ACHIEVE trial (Alexander et al., Obes Res Clin Pract, 2019)

• Bringing an Effective Behavioral Weight Loss Intervention for People With Serious Mental Illness to Scale (McGinty et al., Front Psychiatry, 2018)

• Cardiorespiratory benefits of group exercise among adults with serious mental illness (Jerome et al., Psychiatry Research, 2017)

• A cost analysis of implementing a behavioral weight loss intervention in community mental health settings: Results from the ACHIEVE trial (Janssen et al., Obesity (Silver Spring), 2017)

• Perceptions of strategies for successful weight loss in persons with serious mental illness participating in a behavioral weight loss intervention: A qualitative study (Vazin et al., Psych Rehab, 2016)

• A Behavioral Weight-Loss Intervention in Persons with Serious Mental Illness (Daumit et al. N Engl J Med, 2013)

• Cigarette smoking and health characteristics in individuals with serious mental illness enrolled in a behavioral weight loss trial (Dickerson et al., Journal of Dual Diagnosis, 2013)

• A nutritional intervention to reduce the calorie content of meals served at psychiatric rehabilitation programs (Casagrande et al., Community Ment Health, 2011)

• Dietary intake of adults with serious mental illness (Casagrande et al., Psychiatr Rehabil, 2011)

• Randomized trial of achieving healthy lifestyles in psychiatric rehabilitation: the ACHIEVE trial (Casagrande et al., BMC Psychiatry, 2010)