Medscape Psychiatry 2024 October Issue
Alcohol Use Disorder, Cannabis, Technology Addiction: Get the Skinny from 23rd Annual PsychPharm Update Faculty Here!
Welcome back, MedscapeLIVE! Psychiatry Newsletter Readers! It’s becoming hard to keep track of where we are with the myriad new treatment advances for addictions. The 23rd Annual Psychopharmacology Update agenda comprises Workshops and Master Classes designed to bring you up to speed on these advances and others—covering judicious psychopharmacology, evidence-based combinations, and management of treatment-resistant psychiatric disorders, to addiction and psychedelics, among other urgent issues for you as a practitioners.
Drs. Kevin P. Hill, Mark S. Gold, and Petros Levounis join us to share some tidbits from their presentations as well as opinions on a few other topics. Read on for a taste of what’s to come at the 23rd Annual Psychopharmacology Update! Huge thanks to these faculty for offering their true opinions on these treatment options. Also, scroll down for the Psychiatry Resource Section, in which you will find multiple articles on the very topics covered in this month’s faculty exchange.
Thank you to this month’s thought leaders for their candid thoughts and perspectives! Please contact me at colleen@cmhadvisors.com with any comments. –Colleen Hutchinson
Need CME?—Don’t Miss This!
23rd Annual Psychopharmacology Update
Cincinnati, OH | October 25-26, 2024
Earn up to 13.25 CME/CE Credits and get the latest updates in the advancements of psychiatry.
Alcohol Use Disorder, Cannabis, Technology Addiction: Get the Skinny
Dr. Levounis, can you share a main pearl from your upcoming presentation, the Technology Addiction?
Dr. Levounis: The distinction between normal everyday use of technology and frank addiction is often challenging. However, we now have robust criteria to make the diagnosis of a technological addiction, and "continued use despite knowledge of adverse consequences" is perhaps one of the most helpful.
Dr. Gold, what will you be sharing in your upcoming presentation, the Alcohol and Tobacco Workshop?
Dr. Gold: Alcohol is a drug, and safe drinking may be an oxymoron. Alcohol use disorder (AUD) research has enabled us to develop treatments and protocols for safe detoxification, relapse, and craving. Dual disorders are common with AUD, including depression, anxiety, and PTSD. They need treatment alongside AUD treatment.
Reducing tobacco smoking has been one of the most impressive public health accomplishments. Treatment for detoxification and abstinence have improved as have methods for relapse prevention. Oddly, shame, stigma, and user discrimination were effective treatments for smoking. Dual disorders, especially depression, are important and need treatment.
Dr. Hill, what is one main pearl from your upcoming presentation, Cannabis Workshop?
Dr. Hill: Beyond the FDA indications for the three cannabinoids available by prescription in the US, the best evidence for the therapeutic use of cannabis and cannabinoids is for chronic pain, neuropathic pain, and spasticity associated with multiple sclerosis. The evidence for these conditions varies, but it is enough to engage in a conversation with a patient about using cannabis or cannabinoids to treat these conditions.
What are you looking forward to most at the Psychopharmacology Update?
Dr. Hill: Medscape conferences are generally lively affairs with enthusiastic attendees. As much as I enjoy sharing what I know, I always end up learning a lot from attendees as well.
Dr. Levounis: Meeting with colleagues and friends from all over the country in an exciting academic setting!
Dr. Levounis, what is one of the biggest advances you have seen in treating addiction?
Dr. Levounis: The wide dissemination of naloxone for the treatment of opioid overdose and the uptake of buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder. Although both medications for been around for a while, their current incorporation into everyday medical work, including jails and prisons, is remarkable. Of course, a lot of work still needs to be done, especially in black and brown communities.
Dr. Gold, what is a recent advance you utilize in treating your patients?
Dr. Gold: Adding regenerative interventions like healthy diet and vigorous physical exercise. Treating the whole patient means evaluating the whole patient and all comorbidities.
Dr. Hill: We know much more now about the risks of CBD, so I am able to have much more detailed conversations about the risks and benefits of CBD.
Cannabis—do the positives outweigh the negatives?
Dr. Hill: Right now, they do not. For the most part, we’ve done a poor job as a country implementing cannabis policy and, at the same time, the science has not kept pace with the level of interest.
Dr. Gold: Cannabis has not been approved for any psychiatric illness or disease other than rare pediatric seizures and for good reason. FDA-quality evidence of safety and efficacy is lacking or non-existent.
Psychiatry Resource Section
Medscape Article: AI in Psychiatry: Exploring the Role of AI in Therapy and Personality Disorders
JAMA Psychiatry Viewpoint— Semaglutide in Psychiatry—Opportunities and Challenges
New England Journal of Medicine Perspective: Health Equity in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election
Medscape Medical News Article: MDMA Is Off the Table, So What’s Next for PTSD?
MD Edge: Medical Intelligence Quiz: Youth, emerging adults, and 12-month prevalence of cannabis use
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