Toward Personalizing Care in Adolescent Inpatient Psychiatric Units: A Latent Profile Analysis.

Research on youth Inpatient Psychiatric Units (IPUs) is increasing, yet much remains unknown about the treatment setting. Youth IPU research often treats all patients as part of observable groups (e.g., diagnosis), which may miss unobserved patterns in patient needs. To examine differences in patients in youth IPUs in a nuanced, person-centered way, this study uses Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to examine profile patterns in Patient Reported Outcome Measures administered at admission to youth aged 12-17 on an IPU (n = 496). The LPA identified five profiles characterizing patients: High Internal Distress, Moderate Internal Distress, High Family and Environmental Distress, Moderate Family and Environmental Distress, and Mild Distress. We analyzed these profiles based on race/ethnicity, sex assigned at birth, insurance type, diagnoses, age, length of stay, and treatment satisfaction at discharge. Treatment implications of the LPA and significant findings are discussed and methods of advancing personalization of care are recommended.