Matt Zemon, MSc’s Post

🧠 The Value Equation in Psychiatry 🧠 For the past 35 years, we’ve seen a troubling trend in psychiatry that demands our attention: biologic reductionism. This approach has contributed to the overdiagnosis of emotional health conditions and the overprescribing of medications that often provide little benefit, while frequently causing more harm than good. This is the sentiment of Dr. Wesley Sowers, in his article, "The Value Equation in Psychiatry." Your Takeaways: 🧪 Biologic reductionism in psychiatry has led to overdiagnosis of emotional health conditions and overprescribing of medications with limited benefits. 💰 The U.S. healthcare system is fragmented, often prioritizing profit over patient outcomes, contributing to poor mental health care. 🧠 Preventive care is underutilized, with many mental health conditions going undetected until they become acute or chronic. 😎 Non-pharmacologic therapies like family and group interventions are underemphasized in psychiatric training, reducing overall care quality. 👎 High administrative costs and overtreatment are significant drivers of inefficiency in mental health care, hindering efforts to deliver high-value services. 🎯 Challenge this Paradigm 🎯 As healthcare professionals, we must challenge this paradigm. The over-reliance on medication undermines the holistic care many patients need, detracting from non-pharmacologic therapies such as family and group interventions, which have proven effective. It's time to re-evaluate how we define value in psychiatric care. Instead of prioritizing short-term fixes, let’s advocate for strategies that focus on comprehensive, sustainable outcomes for our patients. 📢 Call to action: If you're passionate about improving mental health services, join the conversation. Let’s push for better practices that serve the whole patient, not just the symptom. #MentalHealth #HealthcareReform #ValueBasedCare #Psychiatry

Primetime for #neuropsychiatric symptoms: “The Lancet Psychiatry forecasts that 1/2 of the global population will experience a mental health disorder in their lifetime. Yet current treatments fall short for up to 1/3 of the patients. There are two paths ahead for innovation: design better drugs for established targets or find entirely new biological mechanisms” Hebbian Bio is doing the latter. Our focus is on #neurodevelopmentalDisorders 💡The global mental health treatment market is expected to exceed $500 B by 2028.

NEW BLOG: Too Much Talking: why less in consultations may be more In our latest NB Blog Dr Neal Tucker looks at new data published in the Lancet Psychiatry on discontinuation symptoms of antidepressants; one of the fascinating findings is you don’t even need to take the medication to suffer from withdrawal effects. Read on to find out what this means in practice. https://buff.ly/3Lo2sh7 #PrimaryCare #Blog #Antidepressants

It is a great honor for me to give a talk at this fascinating congress! In my talk, I will try to provide a brief history of what has been done so far in the field of aging, from the definition of aging to the main hypotheses to the challenges ahead. I will also discuss why, despite all these challenges, there is still hope for slowing down aging, and how we can use existing data and technology to discover the factors that control aging! Looking forward to a fruitful discussion! German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE)

What is the potential impact of #PrecisionPsychiatry on the field of research and clinical treatment for mental health? The #ECNP2024 programme covers various aspects of precision psychiatry across multiple Symposia and four Campfire Sessions. These symposium sessions include: ➡️‘Implementing precision #psychiatry in clinical practice: what are we waiting for?’ Read more: https://ow.ly/qQec50S8g6I   ➡️‘Treatment of #ADHD across the lifespan: monitoring and predicting outcome’. Read more: https://ow.ly/fJIO50S8m7Z   ➡️‘Precision medicine and personalised #psychopharmacology in neurodevelopmental disorders’. Read more: https://ow.ly/2ZsV50S8m8J   ➡️'Molecular pathways to accelerated aging in psychiatric disorders'. Read more: https://ow.ly/kjTF50S8mf0 #ECNP Jane Foster, Paolo Fusar-Poli, Mirko Manchia, M.D., Ph.D. and Claudia Pisanu. Gaia Novarino, Hilgo Bruining and Celso Arango. Laura K.M. Han, Alessio Squassina and Maryam Keshavarz.

Do you, as a psychiatric provider, face challenges with medication adherence in your adult patients diagnosed with schizophrenia? Check out my summer interview in Mental Health Weekly published by Wiley publishing company alongside my colleague Dr. Martha Sajatovic, M.D., professor of psychiatry and neurology at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine! We discuss our recent research collaboration on a comprehensive patient-level meta-analysis evaluation, bringing together insights from two pivotal studies: the PRIDE and PROSIPAL studies. This combined analysis delved into the risk of relapse in adult patients with schizophrenia, focusing on varying durations of illness (0-3 years, >3-5 years, and >5 years). We compared the effectiveness of long-acting injectable (LAI) paliperidone palmitate (PP) versus oral antipsychotics (OAPs). 🔍 Key Findings: Our research highlights that LAI PP can potentially lower the need for hospitalizations and other intensive psychiatric services, which has significant implications for the healthcare system. By reducing the economic and social burdens on patients, families, and the broader community, LAI PP offers a promising alternative to traditional OAPs. 💡 Broader Implications: One of the standout benefits of LAI PP is its ability to overcome barriers to medication adherence. Unlike daily OAPs, LAI PP requires less frequent dosing, which is particularly advantageous for populations facing social and economic challenges. Improved adherence can lead to better patient outcomes, enhancing the overall quality of life for individuals with schizophrenia. As an early career psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner I'm grateful to have a seat at the table! Collaboration between nurse practitioners and psychiatrists in research and clinical practice enhances patient care, improves health outcomes, and fosters innovation in the healthcare system. Our combined efforts ensure that mental health care is comprehensive, patient-centered, and evidence-based. #psychiatry #neuroscience #longactinginjectables #collaboration

I find myself prepping for a lecture to the #psychiatry residency later this week. Whenever I talk to an audience, I try to think about how I am going to add value. This is the topic list for the psychiatric #boardexam. A lot of board exams will set the pass rate at around 78 or 80%, much like graduate coursework. So, it would appear that, in total, the neurology faculty have no better than 6% value to the psychiatry resident. I am one of 20 neurology lectures they will get. I intend to tell them this: that objectively I am probably worth no better than 0.3% of their board exam (1.2 questions out of 425). I think this context matters, because they would choose to continue attending my lecture if I can return something worth more than just board exam answers. It would appear that I should be able to give them 1.2 board exam answers in 3 minutes. I will do that by expressing the following: #seizure disorder and #encephalopathy are the most common generalized stigmata of #CNS #malignancies and that #mood #dysregulation and #psychosis are the most specific psychiatric presentations. The incidence of CNS malignancy is 9 per 100000 and the incidence of depression is 1 in 10, so one should look for #redflags when wondering if CNS malignancy could be the cause of a #psychiatric illness. Speed of onset, severity and treatment resistance at the red flags that come to mind. Perhaps, I can convince them to stay the remaining 57 minutes by imparting a lesson worth retaining for the rest of their careers. I will start by stating that lesson and then endeavor to prove it. The lesson will be: Assume your patients, who live in their own bodies and have far more experience in them then you, have better insight into their illness that you do. Believe them when they say that something isn't right or isn't working. I will use cases to #teach the point. Wish me luck!

Check out the article published in Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, co-authored by Prof. Giuseppe Di Giovanni from #DSMC. This study explored the behavioral effects of chronic nicotine treatment during adolescence in young adult rats using the Hole-Board test. We found that 30 days of nicotine administration led to increased anxiety in males and reduced anxiety in females. These results highlight the importance of understanding the underlying dynamics of tobacco use in both sexes, with significant implications for studies on nicotine dependence disorders. #Research #Nicotine #Adolescence #Psychopharmacology #DSMCSapienza #MentalHealth

Good news was recently announced by UCLA Health about the benefits of #TMS! Researchers showed not only its effectiveness, but also that it may work even more rapidly than past findings have suggested. The new study published in Psychiatry Research found that 54% of patients exhibited clinical response (at least a 50% improvement) in mood symptoms when examined using multiple depression rating scales. “What we're seeing in our analysis of our large data set is that a majority of patients get significantly better. What’s most exciting to see is that these patients generally start reporting improvement within a week of starting treatment, even though the treatment itself continues for several weeks to build the full benefit," stated one of the researchers. Learn more: https://bit.ly/47ELc0h #DeepTMS #depression #anxiousdepression #mentalhealth #mentalhealthawareness