Mental Health

Data for generalized anxiety disorders and cannabis use is scarce, but pharmacists can help educate patients on potential benefits and risks of cannabis usage.

Developments in glycine transporter type 1 inhibitors, D-amino acid oxidase inhibitors, and phosphodiesterase inhibitors are pushing schizophrenia research forward.

Pharmacy Times will be at the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP) Annual Meeting in Orlando, Florida from April 7 to April 10, 2024.

MDMA-assisted therapy and psilocybin currently lead the way with potential approvals by the FDA.

Investigators also found that African American and White veterans had different risk factors for re-hospitalization post-stroke.

This holistic approach to healing, grounded in harnessing the therapeutic properties of plants, serves as a bridge between centuries-old traditional wisdom and modern scientific practices.

Health care professionals providing care to patients using second-generation antipsychotics could benefit from incorporating community pharmacists as members of their team.

Investigators aimed to determine the impact of psychotherapy or psychopharmacologic treatments on adverse outcomes in individuals with coronary artery disease or heart failure.

Psychedelic medicines such as psilocybin, MDMA, ketamine, and LSD have been shown to have a significant impact on conditions such as major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder in clinical trials.

These therapies can improve treatment adherence for patients, especially for those with a history of poor or uncertain adherence.

Sa'ed Al-Olimat, PharmD, also discussed the potentially groundbreaking shift for MDMA expected later in 2024.

Pharmacogenomics could help streamline prescribing and dosing for psychiatric medications, avoiding the trial-and-error process common with these medications.

Pharmacists can educate patients on current clinical evidence of cannabis’s therapeutic benefit, as well as cannabis’s complexities, risks, and potential adverse effects.

At 4 months, 75% of participants achieved remission and no longer showed signs of depression symptoms in a phase 2 clinical trial.

Case reports have shown a potential association with adverse psychological effects.

The findings also indicated that individuals who experienced significant adverse events in childhood were approximately 17% more likely to experience adverse events in adulthood.

If clinical trials continue to show that psychedelics offer safe and long-lasting results, then psychedelic-assisted therapy could flourish as a treatment in the mental health space.

Findings emphasize the importance of further research on effective and safe alternative treatments for MDD in children and adolescents, specifically in patients who are refractory to nonpharmacologic treatment and/or standard of care antidepressants

The CBT-based intervention, compared with routine pregnancy care, demonstrated reductions of 81% and 74% for depression and anxiety, respectively.

The dynamic reconfigurations in individuals taking antidepressant were higher than in non-users and controls, with no significant differences between those with MDD or an anxiety disorder.

Many psychedelics being studied for clinical use are not "magic mushrooms", rather clinical drugs formulated using good manufacturing practice standards.

Investigators continue to conduct regulated and controlled clinical trials to build compelling, high-quality evidence on their therapeutic potential.

Investigators suggested that this difference is caused by a common medication for treatment-resistant schizophrenia.

Children with heart disease who received infant open-heart surgery had more stress and neurodevelopmental impairments compared with children who did not undergo surgery.

One significant difference was an increased rate of bupropion prescriptions for transgender females.

If approved, this would mark the first MDMA-assisted therapy and psychedelic-assisted therapy approved, calling for a reschedule of MDMA from Schedule I. A PDUFA was set for this summer.

Pharmacists are uniquely positioned to play a frontline role in advancing health equity. This will require, however, that we build the pipeline of future pharmacists and preserve vital community touchpoints.

Despite the tool’s ability to predict efficacy of sertraline in patients with major depressive disorder, the investigators note that future research will seek to improve the algorithm.

The study authors noted that further research with larger populations should be conducted to boost the reliability and generalizability of the results.

Early signs of psychosis may be used to predict the risk of developing a full psychosis spectrum disorder.