From Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Simone Biles, public figures are speaking out to end the stigma around mental health care, reinforcing the purpose of May’s Mental Health Awareness Month. But awareness alone isn’t enough. Even as more patients pursue treatment, many still encounter significant barriers to starting and continuing therapy.
For pharmaceutical brands, market access teams, and patient support programs, improving medication adherence means addressing these barriers directly—and supporting patients at the right moments in their treatment journey.
For specialty medications, including treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD), the challenge is clear: Even the most innovative therapies can’t deliver results if patients don’t start or stay on treatment.
Research shows that within the first nine weeks, nearly one-third of patients take at least a short break from medication prescribed for mental health diagnoses. More concerning, 28% stop treatment within the first month, and 44% discontinue within three months.
This early drop-off is a major barrier to improving outcomes. In fact, how long patients stay on therapy and how consistently they take it is crucial, real-world evidence of treatment effectiveness, shaping payer decisions around access, safety, and cost. When patients drop early, it not only affects outcomes—it can also create downstream barriers to access.
To close this gap, stakeholders must move beyond awareness and focus on reducing friction from prescribing to persistence.
For a healthcare provider, prescribing a specialty psychotropic medication isn’t as simple as clicking “send.” The administrative burden of prior authorizations (PAs) and complex documentation can create a significant barrier.
The Challenge: Administrative hurdles can delay therapy initiation and disrupt clinical momentum. In fact, 8 out of 10 physicians report that issues related to PAs contribute to treatment abandonment. In some cases, providers may default to alternative therapies that have less demanding prescribing rules.
The Fix: Integrating PA support and visibility into real-time coverage in the EHR workflow makes therapies easier to prescribe. Reducing this friction helps ensure patients start treatment when clinical intent is highest.
Side effects are one of the leading drivers of early discontinuation, especially in mental health, where patients may feel worse before they feel better.
The Challenge: Side effects often appear early, while therapeutic benefits may take weeks, leading to abandonment during the most vulnerable period.
The Fix: Well-timed, provider-to-patient messages can set expectations and reinforce persistence. Delivering education and refill or renewal support at key moments helps patients stay on therapy long enough to experience its benefits. Encouraging the use of adjunctive therapies, like psychotherapy or evidence-based lifestyle changes, can also help patients manage this window.
Specialty medications often sit on higher formulary tiers. When a patient learns the drug is ready and is met with a high out-of-pocket cost, the transition from “patient” to “consumer” often leads to a break in care.
The Challenge: IQVIA data shows an abandonment rate of 45% for prescriptions costing more than $125.
The Fix: Integrating copay support and savings information at the point of care and via provider-to-patient text messages helps on two fronts. The physician can start the discussion about affordability during the visit, plus post-visit engagement connects patients to support resources from the convenience of a smartphone, helping to remove cost barriers and improve first-fill rates.
Many mental health conditions affect memory, focus, and follow-through. This makes adherence more difficult. Asking patients with impaired focus to manage complex specialty dosing is an adherence breakdown waiting to happen.
The Challenge: Patients are often expected to manage complex treatment regimens without consistent support, increasing the likelihood of missed doses or discontinuation.
The Fix: Low-friction, automated engagement, such as personalized refill reminders, can reinforce adherence. When communication feels like a natural extension of care from a trusted provider, patients are more likely to stay on track.
After a prescription is written, pharma brands can lose visibility into whether patients start or continue therapy.
The Challenge: Generic “one-size-fits-all” programs fail because they aren’t timed to the patient’s actual behavior.
The Fix: End-to-end prescription engagement helps patients start and stay on therapy, while giving pharma brands the insights needed to continue to improve persistence and demonstrate real-world evidence to payers.
This May, move beyond awareness. For the pharmaceutical industry, the most impactful way to celebrate Mental Health Awareness Month is by removing the friction that stands between a patient and their recovery.
When they receive support at critical moments between prescribing and persistence, patients are better prepared to manage their mental health diagnoses and pharma brands achieve quantifiable results, such as:
Want more information on how TimelySM by DrFirst® can help? Download the MDD Success Story.