APA: American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting

Current diagnostic tools, such as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, rely on symptoms to diagnose psychiatric diseases, but using biological measures instead could provide a more reliable, valid method of classifying these syndromes, said Godfrey Pearlson, MD, professor of psychiatry and neuroscience, Yale School of Medicine.

The 175th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association featured a session on how cultural and ethnic differences could affect reponses to drugs.

Studies presented in posters at the 175th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association demonstrated that the combination of olanzapine and samidorphan kept weight gain below levels typically seen in commonly used antipsychotics.

Efficacy is the primary factor in patients’ decisions to take antipsychotic medications, but weight gain is an important side effect that can also impact those decisions, explained Adam Simmons, director of clinical program management, Alkermes. Simmons was interviewed at the 175th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, where he presented on the investigational drug ALKS 3831.

The poll by the American Psychiatric Association found that young men were especially reluctant to seek mental health care from their employers, even though most workers, especially young ones, said they felt willing to discuss mental health in the workplace.

The American Journal of Psychiatry published one of the studies that led to approval of one of the most anticipated therapies in years: esketamine for treatment-resistant depression.

A coordinated specialty care model can most effectively address early psychosis, but it’s also important to involve the patient and their family members when making treatment decisions, according to Jacob Ballon, MD, MPH, clinical associate professor, psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University.

Steven Adelsheim, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, explained how the stigma surrounding mental health issues can cause delays in treatment, but the increased discussion of mental health on social media may make young people become more comfortable with discussing their experiences and seeking help.

Lori Raney, MD, principal, Health Management Associates, explained that integrating mental health care into primary care settings can eliminate the need for a referral and potentially avoid stigmatization, but there still needs to be a better payment model for integrated care.

A discussion with University of California at Berkeley sociologist Arlie Hochschild, PhD, author of the best-seller Strangers in Their Own Land: Anger and Mourning on the American Right, addressed how social psychiatry can help bridge the current political divide.

The 175th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, meeting in San Francisco, California, featured research about loneliness among minority women at midlife.

Jonathan Avery, MD, director of addiction psychiatry, New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Weill Cornell Medical Center, explained why it’s important to diagnose and treat concurrent substance use disorders and mental illnesses at the same time.

The use of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) has expanded to patients experiencing psychosis, who can learn to cope with delusional beliefs or hearing voices, explained David Kingdon, MD, professor of mental health care delivery, University of Southampton.

ALKS 5461 has already demonstrated efficacy versus placebo as an adjunctive major depressive disorder treatment in short-term randomized clinical trials. In a poster, researchers reported on the long-term efficacy, safety, and tolerability of the proposed therapy.

Two posters presented at the American Psychiatric Association's 2018 Annual Meeting examined the factors patients with schizophrenia consider when deciding whether or not to take their medications and outcomes of a new medication to treat patients with schizophrenia and alcohol use disorder.

At the American Psychiatric Association 2018 Annual Meeting, held in New York, New York, a panel addressed the role of digital innovation in delivering mental health care.

On Monday, May 7, during a poster session at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association, researchers presented new data on the injectable antipsychotic treatment aripiprazole lauroxil (Aristada), which is indicated for the treatment of schizophrenia.

In a discussion during the American Psychiatric Association 2018 Annual Meeting, held in New York, New York, a panel of psychiatrists argued that private insurance is failing patients with mental health disorders, and that a single-payer system would provide better access and better care for the most seriously ill patients.

In a talk on integrative healthcare for transgender populations during the American Psychiatric Association’s 2018 Annual Meeting, held in New York, New York, Hansel Arroyo, MD, director of psychiatry and behavioral medicine at the Institute for Advanced Medicine at the Center for Transgender Medicine and Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital, discussed the Institute’s approach to addressing mental health needs in the delivery of care.

During the American Psychiatric Association’s 2018 Annual Meeting, held in New York, New York, Patricia Newton, MD, MA, MPH, delivered the 2018 Solomon Carter Fuller Lecture, in which she discussed the challenges that face patients and psychiatrists of African descent.

During a workshop, panelists discussed outreach efforts, including Project Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes, known as Project ECHO, to deliver psychiatric care to underserved patients in the United States and Canada.

Posters presented at the American Psychiatric Association 2018 Annual Meeting highlight methods of treating patients with substance use disorder.

Mental health disorders are both a cause and a consequence of social determinants of health, and providing integrated care that addresses issues outside of the health system will require work at multiple levels, including clinical, policy, and finance, explained Benjamin G. Druss, MD, of the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.

Gregory L. Fricchione, MD, of Harvard Medical School, says that primary care physicians and specialists alike can benefit from a heuristic equation that considers a patient's stress and resilience levels.

Attendees at the 167th Annual Meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), convening at the Jacob K. Javits Center in New York City, appreciated Sunday's opportunity to hash out practical day-to-day issues at Meet the Author: Evidence-Based Guide to Antidepressant Medications and Antipsychotic Medications, with editor Anthony J. Rothschild, MD, director of the Center for Psychopharmacologic Research and Treatment, at University of Massachusetts Medical School.

Roger Kathol, MD, president of Cartesian Solutions, Inc, and professor of internal medicine and psychiatry at the University of Minnesota, says that health reform presents several opportunities for psychiatrists.

Modern life is full of stress, and understanding how stress affects the brain is essential to developing ways to prevent its harmful effects on the body, according to Gregory Fricchione, MD, of Harvard Medical School.

Steven S. Sharfstein, MD, president and CEO of Sheppard Pratt, says that patients with mental illness who are insured under Medicare or Medicaid will feel the effect of health reform in terms of cost control and quality-focused care.

The theory behind integrated care models in mental health is easy to grasp: Those who have depression or anxiety often have other problems, such as high blood pressure or unexplained pain, so having a psychiatrist collaborate with a primary care physician (PCP) makes sense.

In 2010, the topic of integrated care in mental health was still at the edges of practice, so much so that the topic only merited a single workshop at the meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) in New Orleans.