Erin Crown, MHS, PA-C, Psych-CAQ

With five adjunctive atypical antipsychotics now approved for MDD, tolerability differences do most of the deciding. The panel matches specific side-effect profiles to individual patients and raises when tapering should begin.

Modest efficacy gains from switching push many clinicians toward augmentation instead. The panel weighs guideline thresholds, side-effect-driven medication matching, and the polypharmacy risks that complicate adding a second agent.

Generic antidepressant switching has little supporting evidence, and Erin Crown explains why she often chooses early augmentation instead, guided by each patient's risk factors.

Deciding whether to switch medications or build on a partial response shapes every subsequent treatment choice. Dr. Citrome outlines the criteria that separate a true nonresponse from a foundation worth augmenting.

In-person visits let Erin Crown read incongruence between what a patient says and how they present, and one encounter years ago showed her exactly why that matters.

A vague sense of 'blah' is often the last symptom to lift. Dr. Harding and Dr. Citrome examine why anhedonia and disrupted sleep persist longest, and how tracking them closely reveals early warning signs.

Gus Alva, MD, DFAPA, joins Erin Crown to discuss how regional meetings, industry exchange, and emerging treatments can help clinicians avoid burnout and better serve patients.

Behind the scenes at a psychiatry conference, Gus Alva, MD, DFAPA, and Erin Crown share practical insights on burnout, industry, and emerging treatments—turning continuing education into better patient outcomes.

A patient's improving score does not always translate into a patient who feels better, and Erin Crown explains how anhedonia and cognitive symptoms account for the gap.

More than half of patients treated for depression don't believe full remission is achievable. The panel explores what success should mean to the patient in front of you, and why patients rarely admit they've stopped taking a medication.

Treatment does not end with a prescription. The panel closes by examining who owns follow-up care, and why caregivers remain the true cornerstone of managing Alzheimer's agitation over time.

When first-line therapy falls short, the decision to augment or switch is rarely straightforward. The panel examines that decision-making process alongside neurology's evolving role in managing agitation.

Standardized questionnaires matter, but Erin Crown leans on detailed conversation about a patient's daily routines to catch functional changes that no scale fully captures.

Standardized rating scales define response and remission in clinical trials, but Erin Crown argues real recovery means returning fully to the life a patient had before depression began.

Specialty care approaches shared decision-making differently, and the stakes extend beyond a single symptom. The panel closes this discussion by debating whether treating agitation can shift disease trajectory itself.

With two on-label options now available, the choice between them comes down to comorbidities, psychosis, and risk. The panel also examines how long-term care rating pressures complicate that decision in practice.

A PHQ-9 score can mislead as easily as it clarifies. The panel unpacks the gap between rating-scale remission and how patients actually experience recovery, using real cases where appearances and scores diverged sharply.

Precision medicine looks different in psychiatry than in oncology. The panel discusses why personalizing MDD care starts with a complete patient history, and how clinical experience, evidence, and patient goals combine to guide treatment.

Longer follow-up and real-world claims data add context that pivotal trials alone cannot provide. The panel examines both, alongside how monitoring for response actually happens in daily practice.

A second on-label option carries its own distinct mechanism and its own trial history. The panel details how this antipsychotic therapy was studied and what its data actually show.

Many symptoms that most impair patients with major depressive disorder go unspoken until treatment starts working, making early recognition and patient-defined goals central to effective care.

Depression's cardinal symptoms are often invisible to the patient reporting them. Dr. Harding and Dr. Citrome examine why diagnosis, not treatment, remains psychiatry's hardest task, and how family observation and screening for bipolar depression change the diagnostic path.

Safety data, not just efficacy, determines how comfortable clinicians feel prescribing. The panel reviews the safety profile, dosing schedule, and drug interactions relevant to a newer agitation therapy.

Pivotal trial data can reshape when clinicians feel comfortable starting treatment. The panel walks through the short- and long-term study results behind a newer agitation therapy in detail.

Two on-label options are not enough for every patient. The panel weighs the field's remaining unmet needs against the biological rationale behind a newer, non-antipsychotic approach to treatment.

Decades of off-label prescribing for agitation associated with dementia due to Alzheimer’s are colliding with new evidence and new regulation. The panel examines why practice has lagged behind the data, and what is now changing.

Before any prescription is written, non-pharmacologic strategies and a structured framework guide the panel's approach to agitation, alongside a biological explanation for why redirection so often fails.

Agitation does not stay contained to the patient. The panel examines the data linking agitation to caregiver burden, and the communication gaps that complicate coordinating care across specialties.

Distinguishing agitation from depression, anxiety, and psychosis shapes everything that follows in treatment. The panel walks through the clinical differences and where formal screening scales genuinely fit into daily practice.

Agitation eventually affects nearly every patient with Alzheimer's disease, yet it rarely looks like simple aggression. The panel outlines how common it is, the many forms it takes, and why it so often goes unrecognized.