Category Archives: Treatment

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.

January Meeting – Early Schizophrenia Treatment

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Treatment Approaches That Help Improve Outcomes in Individuals in the Early Phase of Schizophrenia

Presenter: Joseph Ventura, Ph.D.
Research Psychologist with the Aftercare Program, Director of Cognitive Training, and Director of Assessment and Functional Outcome
UCLA Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior
Monday, January 24, 2022, 7:30 p.m.

The early phase of schizophrenia is thought to be a critical period for providing treatments that have been proven helpful in promoting recovery. Several studies show that in the early phase of schizophrenia, various forms of psychosocial treatments are associated with achieving desired outcomes.

This talk will focus on several of these key treatments. Several scientific and accepted statistical methods were used to compare the success of these treatments by examining subsequent levels of cognitive performance, daily functioning, and changes in symptoms. The findings from these studies demonstrate the success of several types of psychosocial treatment approaches provided to individuals in the early phase of schizophrenia. All of these early interventions, especially when there is active involvement in the treatment, showed great promise for promoting recovery during the early course.

The meeting will be virtual. Please contact Nami South Bay President, Paul Stansbury (pstans5@aol.com) for remote access information.

 

April Meeting – Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

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21st Century Interventions for Mental Illness:
rTMS, MeRT and IV Ketamine

Presenter: Dr. Martha B. Koo, M.D.
Monday, April 19 | 7:30 PM (virtual meeting)

Dr. Koo is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst double Board Certified in Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine. A pioneer in the development and application of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Dr. Koo is the founder and CEO of Neuro Wellness Spa, where she offers TMS, Magnetic E-Resonance therapy, IV ketamine, IV nutrition, and photobiomodulation as novel interventions for treatment-resistant mental illness. She is also the Medical Director at Clear Recovery Center and serves on the Board of Directors of the Clinical TMS Society and the Beach Cities Health District.

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

 

Important Meeting–Long Beach, March 30, 5.p.m

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City of Long Beach
Planning Commission Meeting
to Discuss a Proposed Behavioral Health Urgent Care Center

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.

The meeting will be
Thursday at 5 p.m., March 30, 2017
at 333 W. Ocean Blvd. 4th Floor
Long Beach, 90802

Approximately 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness in a given year. Even if someone doesn’t experience this themselves, they likely know someone dealing with depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder or suicidal tendencies. Sometimes those with a mental health condition experience a crisis and need help right away.

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 (BHUCC or “Buck”) 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.

What is a BHUCC?

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

 

Making a Difference with Schizophrenia

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According to a recent article by Lloyd I. Sederer, M.D., medical editor, mental health for The Huffington Post, and author of The Family Guide to Mental Health Care (Forward by Glenn Close), after an intensive, series of sessions involving 25 scientists, clinicians, researchers, patients, family advocates and government prepresentatives, the following were identified as important answers to the question: “What really makes a difference in the lives of people with schizophrenia?”

  1. Keep the natural environment when possible, keep family closely involved, and work toward a return to school or work.
  2. Measurement-based care with clear goals.
  3. Use technology effectively to reach home-bound and rural patients.
  4. Increase peer services, which are critical in engaging and retaining people with schizophrenia in care.
  5. Combine treatments, using reliable treatments, but permitting innovation; use skill building in social and work areas, cognitive techniques to manage paranoia, effective medications, family education/support, all combined with outreach to help people stay engaged.
  6. Recruit people and grounds that will go byond the call of “champion” and zealously pursue improvement over the status quo
  7. Insist on goals–for patients, families and clinicians.
  8. Maintain hope and a belief in human resilience.

Dr. Sederer is the Medical Director of the New York State Office of Mental Health (OMH), the nation’s largest state mental health system. As New York’s “chief psychiatrist”, he provides medical leadership for a $3.6 billion per year mental health system which annually serves over 700,000 people and includes 24 hospitals, 90 clinics, two research institutes, and community services throughout a state of ~ 19 million people. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the Columbia/Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, Dr. Sederer served as the Executive Deputy Commissioner for Mental Hygiene Services in NYC, the City’s “chief psychiatrist”. He also has been Medical Director and Executive Vice President of McLean Hospital in Belmont, MA, a Harvard teaching hospital, and Director of the Division of Clinical Services for the American Psychiatric Association.

Follow Lloyd I. Sederer, MD on Twitter: @askdrlloyd

His website is http://www.askdrlloyd.com

 

Study Finds Depression Subtype May Not Be Relevant in Selecting Treatment

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From Psychiatric News Alert: There may be no preferential antidepressant pharmacotherapy for treating subtypes of major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a study published online in AJP in Advance, “Depression Subtypes in Predicting Antidepressant Response: A Report From the iSPOT-D Trial.”

oweirieoeA. John Rush, M.D., a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University School of Medicine, and colleagues conducted a study with 1,008 individuals with MDD to assess the proportions of participants who met at least one criteria for MDD subtype—melancholic, atypical, and anxious depression—and compared subtype profiles on remission and change in depressive symptoms after eight weeks of treatment with escitalopram, sertraline, or extended-release venlafaxine. Improvement of symptoms and likelihood of remission were quantified by the 16-item Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomology-Self Report.

The researchers found that 39 percent of the studied individuals exhibited at least one pure form of a depressive subtype, with atypical subtype being the most prevalent at 15 percent. Approximately 36 percent of the participants met criteria for more than one subtype. As it relates to antidepressant treatment, the results showed that participants in all subtype groups exhibited a similar statistically significant reduction in symptoms and did not differ in the likelihood to remit.

“Whether pure or mixed, subtypes were not differentially predictive of overall acute treatment outcomes or differentially predictive of efficacy among the three antidepressant medications,” the researchers concluded. “If replicated, these findings would suggest that the clinical utility of these subtypes in treatment selection is minimal.”

The iSPOT-D trial (International Study to Predict Optimized Treatment – in Depression) is the largest personalized medicine research study in mental health.

To read more about treatments for major depressive disorder, see the Manual of Clinical Psychopharmacology, Eighth Edition, by Alan Schatzberg, M.D., and Charles DeBattista, M.D., D.M.H., from American Psychiatric Publishing.

Image Credit: MorgueFile