APA Blogs
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Black History Month: Dr. James Comer on Co-Founding the Black Psychiatrists of America
“I didn’t plan to become a psychiatrist,” said James P. Comer, M.D., M.P.H., the Maurice Falk Professor of Child Psychiatry at the Yale Child Study Center. “It was the only thing in medical school that I said I would never do – public health was the other – and I ended up doing both. As I worked, I began to see that the individuals were being impacted by history, by political economics and social conditions that they have little control over, and that impacted the ability of families to function, the ability to rear their children well, the ability to participate and feel belonging in society – and that was related to racism.
Helping Patients Cope with Emotional Reactions to Climate Change: Advice for Mental Health Clinicians
- By Elizabeth Haase, M.D.
Climate change is not easy for the human mind to understand. It has qualities, like its enormous scale, complexity and uncertainty, that make it hard to comprehend. Greenhouse gases are invisible, and what is happening on one part of the planet is not happening on another: you can’t “see” it.
A Psychiatrist’s Guide to Surviving Family Gatherings
- By Rebecca Brendel, M.D., J.D.
The Hallmark version of the holiday season portrays a snow-blanketed cozy, warm and loving environment in which we reconnect with friends, family and loved ones, and celebrate the people and events we are thankful for. In fact, in a new poll from the American Psychiatric Association, 47% of Americans say that’s the thing they look forward to the most this holiday season, and, no doubt, it can be joyous.
Collaboration is Key to Meeting Demand for Mental Health Services
The COVID-19 pandemic has left in its wake a serious mental health crisis, the scope of which is still evolving. Even before the pandemic, demand for mental health care services was extremely high, and increasing by the day. Now, as lockdowns have ended and many pandemic restrictions have lifted in America, COVID is still putting a strain on health care personnel, and the systems they work in. In addition to laying bare the severity of healthcare disparities in our communities, the pandemic has also focused a spotlight on the seriousness of the mental health care shortage in America. In the face of these mounting challenges and unprecedented need, it is clear that the future of mental health care in our country will require an interdisciplinary approach.
What APA Is Doing for You: Update on Clozapine REMS
- By Saul Levin, M.D., M.P.A., FRCP-E, FRCPsych
In November 2021, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) instituted a new Clozapine Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) to monitor prescribing and dispensing of the drug, which is used to treat schizophrenia. The new REMS led to confusion for manufacturers, pharmacies, prescribers, and patients. Some clinicians stopped prescribing the already underutilized drug, and some pharmacies stopped dispensing it. This chaotic situation led the FDA to stop enforcing certain requirements of the REM for 90 days.