Category Archives: Medication

March Meeting: Long Lasting Injectables

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Monday, March Meeting
Virtual Meeting
7:30 PM, Monday, March 20, 2023

Please come to hear Dr. Vivian Tang speak about the use of long lasting injectables in our second “Ask the Doctor” meeting of 2023. Dr. Tang will talk about the current use of long-acting injectables in outpatient clinic, including in which situations they are used, how they are started, pros and cons, and which patients may benefit the most from these forms of medication.

Dr. Vivian Tang earned her Bachelor’s Degree in Chemistry at Stanford University and her Master’s Degree in Occupational Therapy at USC. She worked at an intensive outpatient psychiatry clinic as an occupational therapist before going back to medical school to complete her MD at USC. She came to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to train in the Adult Psychiatry Residency Program and currently works as an attending physician in the Harbor-UCLA Adult Outpatient Clinic. Dr. Tang is also a UCLA Clinical Instructor of Psychiatry and teaches UCLA medical students and residents at Harbor-UCLA in the outpatient setting.

This meeting will be conducted via Zoom. To attend, see our Monthly email Newsletter for login information or contact Paul Stansbury for information and access. pstans5@aol.com.

August 2021 Monthly Meeting

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Mental Health Evaluation Teams (MET)

Monday, August 16, 2021 7:30 PM (virtual)

Presenter: Sgt. Charles Duncan,
Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department
Community Partnerships Bureau

Please join us on August 16 for a special presentation by Sgt. Duncan on Mental Health Evaluation Teams. A MET team is a combination of a law enforcement officer and a mental health professional.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff Department call their teams MET. Similar teams with other law enforcement departments and units use other names, such as the MEUs and SMART teams for LAPD. The South Bay has a variety of cities and areas with MET-type teams served by the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department and other law enforcement departments.

Sgt. Duncan has had a long and extensive experience with the MET teams in the Community Partnership Bureau of the Sheriff’s Department and in a variety of other roles including crisis negotiation teams, community outreach, schools, training bureau, community policing and others. Sgt. Duncan will provide information about the role and practices of MET teams, some of the challenges and some new developments in responding to a mental health crisis. Come and learn how you can work with MET teams in your area.

Contact Paul Stansbury at pstans5@aol.com for attendance information.

July 2021 Monthly Meeting

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Medications for Mental Illness

Monday, July 19, 2021 7:30 PM (virtual)
Presenter: Dr. Karl Burgoyne

Predicting who will respond to what medication can be difficult because different medications may work better for one person than for another. Doctors usually review clinical records to see if evidence exists for recommending one medicine over another. They also consider family history and side effects when prescribing medication. This meeting will be an opportunity to hear updates on medications and “Ask the Doctor” about medications for mental illnesses.

Our presenter, Dr. Karl Burgoyne, earned his bachelor of science at the University of Southern California where he graduated summa cum laude in Biomedical Engineering with the class of 1984. He then matriculated into medical school also at the University of Southern California and graduated with the class of 1988. His post graduate medical education was at USC’s Department of Psychiatry graduating in 1992. In July 1992, he joined the faculty at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and was the first medical director of the first DMH operated Assertive Community treatment program, or Full Service Partnership Program, now know as the AMI ABLE Program. In 1996 he moved to become the co-medical director of the Harbor-UCLA Adult Outpatient Psychiatry Clinic for 10 years. In 2005, he became the Training Director of the General Adult Psychiatry Residency Program and this remains his assignment today.

Call to Action — Long Beach Needs a Showing of Support

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Long Beach City Council Meeting
Tuesday, May 23rd at 5:00 PM
333 W. Ocean Blvd.
Long Beach 90802
*******************************************
Address of Proposed Site:
3200 Long Beach Blvd., Long Beach

Please come and support the Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center. These services are urgently needed to assist people with mental health disorders and reduce the long waiting times in emergency rooms. If this site is denied there is not a backup plan and this essential service for those in a mental health crisis will be lost to Long Beach. Your support at the Planning Commission Meeting was wonderful. It is now time to finish this process and get started with helping the community.

Parking will be validated and FREE inside the parking structure at 332 W. Broadway. The parking structure entrance is located off W. Broadway (one-way street). Take parking ticket inside the Council Chambers with you. (Follow the blue arrows to get to the City Hall building) the “validation” stamp machine is located at the front of the Council Chambers on the first floor (in front of Minute Clerk’s desk).

There is a clear need for this center, and the location has been carefully selected. Not everyone understands the need for this facility, and some actually oppose it. However, the practices and procedures of this facility will not negatively affect the neighborhood. (CLICK HERE to see answers to commonly asked questions.) Your help is needed.

Because of the shortage of psychiatric mobile response teams, police and sheriff departments in Long Beach and surrounding cities have the difficult task of responding to mental health-related calls. The Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center is a facility that will save law enforcement time in the field, will decrease the burden on hospital emergency rooms, and will help prevent unnecessary incarceration by providing medical treatment instead.

BHUCC will be a place where people with mental illness can go to be stabilized (instead of going to the hospital ER). It can be compared to an Urgent Care Center (where people often go for a medical emergency instead of going to the hospital ER).

The BHUCC provides:

  • Crisis stabilization service
  • Up to 12 adults and 6 adolescents (estimate about 30 clients a day)
  • Doctors, nurses, therapists, peer counselors
  • 24/7 Outpatient Program
  • Patients may stay up to 24 hours
  • Average stay is 4 to 6 hours
  • Round the clock security staff
  • Discharged patients leave the area and return to their home and community services

Learn more at http://www.starsinc.com/bhucc

 

More Study Needed on Effects of Cognitive-Enhancing Drugs on Healthy Individuals

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????????From Psychiatric News Alert: The use of cognitive-enhancing drugs—ordinarily prescribed to control attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), slow memory loss in Alzheimer’s patients, or promote wakefulness—appears to be growing among healthy individuals and the phenomenon deserves closer attention from researchers, clinicians, regulators, and the pharmaceutical industry, said neuroscientists Barbara Sahakian, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge; and Sharon Morein-Zamir, Ph.D., of the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge.

“The main uses of pharmacological cognitive enhancers by healthy individuals seem to be for achievement of a competitive advantage at school, university, or work; to maintain levels of attention and performance when sleep deprived or jet-lagged; and to improve task-related motivation.”

Researchers noted the effects of these drugs (sometimes referred to as “smart drugs”) on healthy individuals are actually quite small, but too little is known about who uses them, under what circumstances, whether they are used acutely or chronically, or what effects they could have on the developing brains of young users.

“We conclude that more immediate action is needed to establish the long-term risks and benefits of pharmacological cognitive enhancers for healthy people and to continue to develop novel, more effective pharmacological cognitive enhancers for people with impairments associated with brain injury or neuropsychiatric disorders,” they said.

To read more about the need for research into cognition, see the Psychiatric News article “IOM Tackles Standards on Cognition in Depression.”

Photo Credit: magraphics.eu | DPC

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New Drug “ITI-007” Shows Promise for Schizophrenia

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????????????????????????????????????????????????????A new medication, now in phase 3 clinical development for the treatment of schizophrenia, is showing great promise, according to its manufacturer and developer, Intra-Cellular Therapies Inc., as presented at the end of March at the 15th International Congress on Schizophrenia Research (ICOSR) in Colorado Springs and this week at the 4th Biennial Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) Conference in Florence, Italy.

“This drug has a different pharmacological profile than any of the other antipsychotics. We believe the unique serotonergic-dopaminergic-glutamatergic pharmacological profile represents a new approach to the treatment of schizophrenia in a single stand-alone therapy.”

According to Intra-Cellular Therapies:

“Our lead product candidate, ITI-007, possesses a mechanism of action targeting multiple brain systems and may allow a physician to fine tune the drug’s action in the brain by simple dose adjustments. At the lowest doses, ITI-007 has been demonstrated to act primarily as a potent 5-HT2A serotonin receptor antagonist. As the dose is increased, additional benefits are derived from the engagement of additional drug targets, including modest dopamine receptor modulation and modest inhibition of serotonin transporters. We believe that combined interactions at these receptors may provide additional benefits above and beyond selective 5-HT2A antagonism for treating agitation, aggression and sleep disturbances in diseases that include dementia, Alzheimer’s disease and autism spectrum disorders, while avoiding many of the side effects associated with more robust dopamine receptor antagonism. As the dose of ITI-007 is further increased, leading to moderate dopamine receptor modulation, inhibition of serotonin transporters, and indirect glutamate modulation, these actions complement the complete blockade of 5-HT2A serotonin receptors. In this dose range, we believe that ITI-007 will be useful in treating the symptoms associated with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder and other neuropsychiatric diseases.”