“Ethical dilemmas arise when there are multiple ethical responsibilities that stand in tension with each other,” Charles Dike, FRCPsych, MBChB, MPH, told the attendees of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting.

At a panel on “Ethical Dilemmas in Psychiatric Practice,” one dilemma stood out: the possible conflict between psychiatrists’ duties to their individual patients and their duties to promote the good of the public as a whole.

This conflict has become particularly pressing this past year due to the global pandemic, and the panelists considered the problem from several angles as they answered previously submitted questions.

One question concerned confidentiality: What should be done when a patient reports her parents are sending another child to school despite the child’s positive SARS-COV-2 virus results?

Daniel J. Anzia, MD, a member of the expert panel, explained “the participation in public health endeavors is a long-standing, recognized potential exception to the obligations of psychiatrists, and all physicians, maintaining confidentiality.” Past department chair for psychiatry at Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois, Anzia said ideally the patient (who was no longer a minor) would make the report to the school, and then inform the family that public health officials might be contacting them. But, he added, if the patient refused, “it is permissible for the psychiatrist to make such a report.”

Another question asked what psychiatrists should do if patients insisted on being seen in person, even at the height of the pandemic. Panel member, Tia Patricia Powell, MD, Director of the 

, told attendees they are not required to put themselves at physical risk. “Among our many obligations as psychiatrists is to provide a safe space in which we can offer therapy for our patients. That includes keeping the patient and psychiatrist safe from each other in terms of communicating the virus,” she explained.

Powell noted that many psychiatrists have extended their own knowledge of telehealth, discharging their obligation to offer care in person by working with patients to make telehealth possible. If the patient refuses telehealth, protective gear, and vaccination, “it could be legitimate for a psychiatrist to say, ‘I’m not at this time able to continue working with you.’”

Along the lines of vaccinations, are psychiatrists obligated to get an available vaccine for SARS-COV-2? Although “a psychiatrist has a right to refuse the vaccine, the psychiatrist should consider their wider obligations of such a decision, including an unspoken statement—to the psychiatrist’s colleagues and patients—that the psychiatrist does not trust the vaccine,” said Dike, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and associate program director of its 

. “This could discourage vulnerable patients from taking what could be a life-saving intervention.”

What are the obligations of a psychiatrist to a new patient who has yet to be seen? The panel was presented with a situation in which a patient fills in a reports suicidal thoughts on a new pre-visit questionnaire, and then does not come to the appointment or answer calls. Should the psychiatrist send someone to check on the patient?

Panelist Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD, detected a potential conflict between the psychiatrist’s duty to the individual patient and the public at large. “We’d hate to say we’re not going to screen patients for suicidality because it’s too hard to figure out what to do with the information,” said Brendel, assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and director of its Master in Bioethics program. However, she noted the need for a follow-up mechanism that does not overstep the bounds of a nascent doctor-patient relationship by violating the prospective patient’s rights to privacy and confidentiality.

One of the more controversial topics over the past few years has been what psychiatrists—or the APA as a whole—should say about the national psyche and potentially dangerous political leaders or movements. Brendel quickly reaffirmed the 

 but also insisted that “psychiatrists can participate in public life by adding insight and knowledge about mental health more generally.” For instance, psychiatrists might use their knowledge of history and psychology to “make some comment about what might lead groups of persons to become susceptible to certain beliefs, be prone to questioning authority in violent ways, and also to be thinking about how unrest or extremism or discriminatory views might affect certain members of our society, and in particular their mental health.”

Striking a balance between obligations to patients and society during a plague year might seem like an exceptional circumstance, but Philip Candilis, MD, reminded attendees that medical ethicists have previously faced similar situations. In fact, Candilis, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at George Washington University School of Medicine and Health, noted that the field of medical ethics arguably began during a deadly outbreak. “When Thomas Percival wrote his 

, it was in response to the typhus epidemic in Manchester [UK],” Candilis said. During the plague, doctors fled the city, leaving many patients without care. In response the government demanded new professional guidance and ethical standards for physicians, 

Several decades later, the American Medical Association adopted Percival’s standards. The ethical dilemmas with which he grappled remain relevant today, and they will likely come up again. “How do you protect yourself as a doctor,” asked Candilis, “How do you protect your family, and how do you work for the public good at the same time? This is a difficult, difficult balance to strike.”

The panel reminded attendees that ethics resources and official APA opinions could be find on the APA’s Ethics webpage 

https://www.psychiatry.org/psychiatrists/practice/ethics

. Queries can be submitted to the APA’s Ethics Committee staff liaison for further guidance at apaethics@psych.org. Similarly, 

 readers can submit ethical dilemmas to our Ethics Editor via 

Articles

What’s a psychiatrist to do? An APA ethics panel at the Annual Meeting considered various dilemmas, including possible conflicts between physicians’ obligations to individual patients and their obligation to promote the public good. 

Expert Panel Ponders What It Takes To Be an Ethical Psychiatrist  

“The main message here is that depression is a family affair,” Myrna Weissman, PhD, professor at Columbia University and Chief of the Division of Translational Epidemiology at New York State Psychiatric Institute, told attendees of the 2021 Virtual American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. “Especially if you’re dealing with offspring.”

Weissman presented her research on the contributions to the understanding of depression during the session, “Depression in Families: Clinical Opportunities for Breaking the Cycle of Transmission.”

She discussed 3 major topics: studying 3 generations at high risk for depression over 38 years, how treatment has the potential to break the cycle of transmission, and how interpersonal psychotherapy for depression has expanded and been modified during the pandemic.

 She looked at parents with serious major depression (high-risk family) and followed their children and grandchildren, comparing them to those who did not have depression (low-risk family). “I was interested to see what happened to youth who became depressed and to follow them over time.”

She found that high risk families were more likely to pass mood disorders to their offspring, with a peak of onset at adolescence to young adulthood (usually before age 40). Grandchildren with 2 affected previous generations are at 3-fold risk for MDD and an increased risk of suicidal behavior. 

Another interesting find was the effect of religion: mothers for whom religion was very important were 81% less likely to have major depressive disorder (MDD) than mothers who did not find religion as important. Furthermore, religion and spirituality importance in parents was associated with lower risk of suicidal behavior in both boys and girls.

Can treatment prevent the cycle of transmission? Weissman said it is possible if the mothers are treated for depression. One study showed that children’s depression significantly improved after the mother received at least 3 months of treatment.

“The mother’s improvement, regardless of treatment type would help the child clinically. If you have a depressed child, find out about the mom,” Weissman advised.

Weissman’s decades of research concluded that depression is inheritable, but the cycle can be broken. However, the role of environment is still variable.

“Is it nature or nurture?” Weissman posed during the Q+A session. “We cannot at this time determine how much is genetic and how much is environmental because people who are depressed produce environments that can be toxic.”

When evaluating patients for depression, Weissman suggested asking them about key members of their family: their mother, father, and any biological children. Family, she stressed, is key to targeting treatment for depression.

1. van Dijk M, Murphy E, Posner JE, et al. Association of multigenerational family history of depression with lifetime depressive and other psychiatric disorders in children: results from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study. JAMA Psychiatry. 2021.

2. Miller L, Warner V, Wickramaratne P, Weissman M. Religiosity and depression: ten-year follow-up of depressed mothers and offspring. 

3. Weissman M, Pilowsky DJ, Wickramaratne P, et al. Remissions in maternal depression and child psychopathology: a STAR*D-child report. 

Can depression be passed on to future generations, and if it can, how can treatment help? 

Depression: A Family Affair

2021 American Psychiatric Association Virtual Meeting

, Richard C. Shelton, MD, the Charles B. Ireland Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurobiology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and the Director of the UAB Depression and Suicide Center, discussed the functions and concerns of ketamine.

“This is not a simple treatment or a treatment to take lightly,” Shelton said during the Q+A portion of his presentation. “On the other hand, we’ve seen remarkable results.”

Shelton began with a discussion of ketamine’s functions in the brain, and how it restores the regulatory processes for patients with mood disorders, using a 

“Stressful experiences cause a reduction or retraction of spines and synapses. The brain is less able to control or regulate the emotional state,” Shelton explained.

With ketamine administration, there is an almost immediate increase in formation of critical spine and synaptic proteins.

“When you add ketamine to the system, you produce a rapid return and restoration of those spines and synapses. We see an effect within 24 hours,” Shelton continued. “Ketamine has the ability to restore the regulatory control to the brain and helps to theoretically normalize mood.”

Shelton shared data from 8 studies regarding ketamine, and how it produced a rapid, robust effect for patients with severe, resistant mood disorders,

 and further studies on how ketamine functioned for patients with suicidal ideation.

“The good news: ketamine really seemed to work in these highly treatment-resistant patients,” Shelton said. 

Shelton also addressed key concerns regarding ketamine, especially how it may be a challenge to prescribe. First, the US Food and Drug Administration requires a “somewhat cumbersome” risk evaluation and mitigation strategy program, in which the clinic, provider, and patient must all be registered in the program. There are prior authorization hurdles, as well as reimbursement issues. Nonetheless, Shelton finds ketamine more than worth it.

“When I treated my first patient with IV ketamine in 2012, it was just amazing to see the effect occur within 24 hours,” Shelton said.

1. Li N, Liu RJ, Dwyer JM, et al. Glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonists rapidly reverse behavioral and synaptic deficits caused by chronic stress exposure. 

2. Berman RM, Narasimhan M, Sanacora G, et al. A randomized clinical trial of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of major depression. 

3. Zarate CA, Singh JB, Carlson PJ, et al. A randomized trial of an N-methyl-D-aspartate antagonist in treatment-resistant major depression. 

4. Singh JB, Fedgchin M, Daly EJ, et al. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, dose-frequency study of intravenous ketamine in patients with treatment-resistant depression. 

5. Daly EJ, Singh JB. Adjunctive intranasal esketamine in treatment-resistant depression-reply. 

6. Fedgchin M, Trivedi M, Daly EJ, et al. Efficacy and safety of fixed-dose esketamine nasal spray combined with a new oral antidepressant in treatment-resistant depression: results of a randomized, double-blind, active-controlled study (TRANSFORM-1). 

7. Popova V, Daly EJ, Trivedi M, et al. Efficacy and safety of flexibly dosed esketamine nasal spray combined with a newly initiated oral antidepressant in treatment-resistant depression: A randomized double-blind active-controlled study. 

8. Daly EJ, Trivedi M, Janik A, et al. Efficacy of esketamine nasal spray plus oral antidepressant treatment for relapse prevention in patients with treatment-resistant depression: A randomized clinical trial. 

9. Wajs E, Aluisio L, Holder R, et al. Esketamine nasal spray plus oral antidepressant in patients with treatment-resistant depression: assessment of long-term safety in a phase 3, open-label study (SUSTAIN-2). 

10. Wilkinson ST, Ballard ED, Bloch MH, et al. The effect of a single dose of intravenous ketamine on suicidal ideation: A systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis. 

11. Canuso CM, Singh JB, Fedgchin M, et al. Efficacy and safety of intranasal esketamine for the rapid reduction of symptoms of depression and suicidality in patients at imminent risk for suicide: results of a double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study. 

12. Fu DJ, Ionescu DF, Li X, et al. Esketamine nasal spray for rapid reduction of major depressive disorder symptoms in patients who have active suicidal ideation with intent: double-blind, randomized study (ASPIRE I). 

13. Ionescu DF, Fu DJ, Qiu X, et al. Esketamine nasal spray for rapid reduction of depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive disorder who have active suicide ideation with intent: Results of a phase 3, double-blind, randomized study (ASPIRE II). 

One doctor at the APA Virtual meeting explains how ketamine can rebuild spine and synaptic proteins in the brain, but may be difficult to actually prescribe to patients. 

Ketamine: Not A Simple Treatment, But a Worthy One

Patients increasingly ask about cannabis and whether it can be useful for sleep, PTSD, pain, and even dementia. In this video, Timothy W. Fong, MD gives a brief overview on emerging issues in cannabis. On Monday, May 3, Dr Fong and colleagues will speak at this year’s APA meeting in a presentation titled “

Facing the Challenge of Cannabis Legalization: Psychiatry’s Role

Dr Fong is Professor of Psychiatry & Director, UCLA, and Co-Director of UCLA’s Gambling Studies. The presentation is in collaboration with Laurence Westreich, MD; Kevin Allen Sevarino, MD; and Frances Rudnick Levin, MD.

Videos

Timothy W. Fong, MD, touches on our current understanding about cannabis use for psychiatric disorders.

Addressing Myths and Facts About Cannabis Use

The last year has seen an unprecedented shift in the medical landscape, and mental health care is no exception. Experts look at the evidence and risks of digital tools, apps, telehealth, and other technologies for the treatment of serious mental illness. 

In this video, John Torous, MD, and Sherin Khan, LCSW, briefly talk about their presentation at the 

American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting

Three New Tools to Augment Care for People With Serious Mental Illness

. Speakers are Sherin Khan, LCSW; John Torous, MD, MBI; Amy Cohen, PhD; Tristan Gorrindo, MD, and Moderator, John Luo, MD. 

Dr Torous is director of the Digital Psychiatry Division, Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston; editor in chief of 

​. Sherin Khan, LCSW, is the Senior Director of Workforce and Organizational Development at 

, Illinois' oldest and largest provider of community mental health services; and Social Work Expert for 

The last year has seen an unprecedented shift in the medical landscape, and mental health care is no exception. Experts look at the evidence and risks of digital tools, apps, telehealth, and other technologies for the treatment of serious mental illness.

New Digital Psychiatry Tools to Improve Care

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and related conditions like 

, hording disorder, and trichotillomania are all common mental health issues. They all impair psychosocial functioning and quality of life, sometimes to a dangerous degree. Fortunately, well-known, first-line treatments are often effective. But for tough cases, clinicians may need other options.

In this Mental Health Minute, Katharine Phillips, MD, previews an upcoming panel at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting: “

Treatment of Severe Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: What Do You Do If First-Line Treatments Don’t Work

?” Phillips and the panelists will discuss the latest research and treatment developments.

is currently professor of psychiatry, DeWitt Wallace Senior Scholar, and Residency Research Director for the Department of Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medicine. She is also an attending psychiatrist at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and adjunct professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at the Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

Have your patients had unrealistic ideas about their bodies or appearances? 

Share comments with your colleagues by emailing 

. Comments may be shared online pending review and editing for style.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder and related conditions do not always respond to first-line treatments. Fortunately, new options are on the horizon. 

What To Do When First-Line Treatments Don’t Succeed

The pandemic has disproportionately affected older adults. Elderly individuals with dementia and other mental health disorders are especially vulnerable, both to the virus and to the negative effects of lockdowns and social isolation. Under these conditions, their mental health can easily deteriorate.

In this Mental Health Minute, Rajesh R. Tampi, MD, MS, DFAPA previews an upcoming panel at the 

American Psychiatric Association annual meeting

: “Caring for Older Adults With Mental Health Disorders and Dementia: American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry’s Response to the Pandemic.” The panel will discuss both caring for older patients with mental health disorders and how the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry has responded to the pandemic through its education, research, advocacy, and clinical missions. 

is professor and chairman, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Cleveland Clinic Akron General, Akron, Ohio, and is the section chief for geriatric psychiatry, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland, Ohio.

How have you cared for older patients during the pandemic? 

The  pandemic has made caring for geriatric patients more difficult, but a panel at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting discusses the latest best practices.

New Approaches to Treating Dementia?

COMMENTARY: FROM THE GROUP FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF PSYCHIATRY CLIMATE COMMITTEE

As we prepare for the second online annual meeting of the 

, it is a safe bet that few of us are thinking how wonderful it is to stay at home. While online conferences have much to offer, many of us miss the collegial interactions and invigorating break from office routine.

At the same time, we have become accustomed to the efficiency of online meetings—the decreased time and cost of travel, the comforts of controlling what others see and do not see, and the chance to spend more time with family. The environmental benefits of online meetings are also enormous. Large conferences can 

 the carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions of an entire city in a single week.

 on the carbon footprint of APA meetings, we found that by holding its 2020 Philadelphia meeting online, the APA saved roughly 20,000 metric tons CO2e emissions—the equivalent of burning 22 million pounds of coal or 500 acres of dense forest.

Psychiatrists increasingly appreciate the costs of this carbon. Climate change affects mental health in a myriad of ways, through temperature changes that 

 pharmaceutical safety and neurophysiology,

 existential stressors and eco-anxiety in a whole generation of young individuals, and climate-related traumas from forest fires to coastal flooding.

 Some of us are also aware of the degree to which we, the health care system, are the problem. American health care generates more greenhouse gases than many countries, and it 

 more than 400,000 disability-adjusted life-years annually.

 The APA has wisely recognized climate change as a top priority,

 and our response must be to reduce our carbon emissions—as well as respond to the damage they cause—bringing our practice in line with international goals for sustainability.

But sustainability is more than just cutting carbon emissions. Sustainability means creating a system where all of us can thrive—plants, animals, humans, and planet. This requires adequate financial resources, social justice, and social connectivity, while also decreasing the destruction of our planetary home. As we prepare for this second online meeting, it is an opportunity to reflect: Where can psychiatry become more sustainable? What can online meetings accomplish? What parts of in-person contact are important to retain, and how?

During our panel discussion, “The Carbon Footprint of Cancelling the APA, a Virtual Match, and More: Impacts of Psychiatric Activity on Global Warming and How to Respond,” we will explore these issues, presenting research on the carbon footprint of residency interview travel by Daniel Brooks Bernstein and our research on the APA’s carbon footprint. We found that the carbon footprint of APA meetings may vary 3-fold by location in the United States, with northeastern locations optimally minimizing the aggregate 

. We also analyzed how the APA’s carbon footprint would change with different kinds of meetings—regional, online, and so on. For example, we have found that regional meetings could cut carbon emissions by 24% to 53%, and as much as 85% to 86% if nonregional attendees participated online.

Bernstein, a Stanford medical student, found that each of his classmates generated an average of 12,331 pounds of CO2 to complete their residency interviews, with 1 candidate generating as much as 44,000 pounds of CO2. Surely some of these flights are unnecessary to the development of these gifted doctors, especially given the climate and health costs of their travel.

Professional meetings are crucial for socialization, networking, mentoring, and learning. The casual conversations and meals that surround the program are important for the development of a professional identity and lead to creative advancement in clinical practice, research, and policy. Psychiatry especially prizes sustaining connections. But, in truth, many of our assumptions about what binds us to each other have been challenged by the ways we interact now through social media, telecommunications, and our recent rapid adjustment to telepsychiatry. The APA could achieve emissions reductions well within the target of the 

or residency interview procedure, which would help our profession fulfill the Hippocratic Oath to “do no harm.” Using our experiences from the past 2 years, we can find ways to make changes that not only maintain sustainable connections to one another and our patients, but also contribute to the sustainability of our planet.

The panel will also include an overview of the carbon footprint of US health care and a discussion of its sustainable solutions by Todd Sack, MD, FACP, and panel chair Elizabeth Haase, MD. We look forward to sharing ideas and discussing what psychiatry should relinquish and what must be retained as we innovate for new climate-changed realities.

 is a medical student at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. 

is a resident at the University of Rochester School of Medicine. 

 is associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Nevada School of Medicine at Reno and acts as medical director at Carson Tahoe Health, Outpatient Behavioral Health Services.

1. Klöwer M, Hopkins D, Allen M, Higham J. An analysis of ways to decarbonize conference travel . . . 

2. Wortzel JR, Stashevsky A, Wortzel JD, et al. 

Estimation of the carbon footprint associated with attendees of the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting

3. Wortzel J, Haase E. The effects of rising global temperatures on mental health. 

https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.4b24

4. Hayes K, Blashki G, Wiseman J, et al. Climate change and mental health: risks, impacts and priority actions. 

Environmental impacts of the U.S. health care system and effects on public health

6. Ursano RJ, Morganstein JC, Cooper R. APA official actions: Position statement on mental health and climate change. APA Official Actions. 2017:1.❒

Sustainability is more than just cutting carbon emissions. It means creating a system where all of us can thrive—not just survive.

Can Psychiatry Sustain Connections While Hosting Sustainable Conferences?

We are pleased to present this Q&A with Philip R. Muskin, MD, a former Secretary of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), chair of the Scientific Program Committee for the 2020 APA Meeting, Professor of Psychiatry at 

Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Finding Equity Through Advances in Mind and Brain in Unsettled Times,

 APA President Dr Jeffery Geller has selected a theme crucial to the role science plays in dealing with structural racism, a worldwide pandemic, and the inequities in terms of access to care for so many people.

You will be speaking or moderating several sessions this year. Can you summarize the objectives of each and what excites you about sharing with attendees?

Here’s Your Hat, What’s Your Hurry: Career Transitions in Academic Psychiatry:

 This session addresses the oft ignored issues of how we cope with planned and unplanned changes in our psychiatric careers, including the challenges of practicing psychiatry in during the pandemic. I am joined by 2 wonderful colleagues, Drs Sherry Katz-Bearnot and Linda Worley, who will use their own careers to illustrate career transitions.

Treatment of Severe Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders: What Do You Do If First-Line Treatments Don’t Work?

 Chaired by Dr Katherine Phillips, this session will enable participants to more effectively treat these conditions, especially in patients who are more severely ill and who may not fully improve with first-line treatments. 

The obsessive-compulsive and related disorders (OCRDs)—OCD, body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), hoarding disorder, trichotillomania, and excoriation (skin-picking) disorder—are a new chapter of disorders in both DSM-5 and ICD-11. They are common conditions that typically impair psychosocial functioning and quality of life, sometimes to a debilitating degree. Several of them are associated with elevated rates of suicidality.

Mental Health Research in the Era of Competing Crises

: Presented by Dr Joshua Gordon, director of the 

, who will detail the research approach taken by the National Institute of Mental Health, in collaboration with other 

 institutes, in response to the events of 2020 that will inform the mental health response over the coming months.

Educating and Supporting the Mental Health Workforce:

 This session is chaired by Dr Anita Everett and Umberto Carvalho, MPH, to present how Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (

) supports initiatives that provide ongoing, free support of the workforce that can be useful to junior and senior clinicians. Educating and supporting the mental health workforce is a challenge that has only increased as the “workforce shrinks” and new methods are required by the “new normal.” This session will provide an overview of the resources available and highlight 2 centers: 

The Mental Health Technology Transfer Centers

What aspects of the conference are you looking forward to this year?

 It is particularly exciting that Dr Anthony Fauci, 

, and Dr Robert Sapolsky are participating.

Dr Fauci is the long-time chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (

) Laboratory of Immunoregulation. He is regarded as one of the world’s most-cited biomedical scientists and was one of the principal architects of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.

Isabel Wilkerson won the Pulitzer Prize for her work as Chicago Bureau Chief of 

 in 1994, making her the first Black woman in the history of American journalism to win a Pulitzer Prize and the first African American to win for individual reporting in the history of American journalism.

Dr Sapolsky is the author of several works of nonfiction; professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University; and the 

 of the MacArthur Foundation Genius Grant.

What are the most serious issues covered and why should psychiatrists stay informed about the topics presented this year?

The meeting covers the entire scope of psychiatry, which is remarkable. Attendees will have the opportunity to focus on any issue of diagnosis, ethics, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and the cutting edge of psychiatric research.

What is different this year from last year’s meeting?

 This is the first truly virtual full APA meeting. The Spring Highlights meeting in 2020 was a great introduction to virtual meetings. This year the Scientific Program Committee and the Office of the Scientific Program were truly able to prepare for a virtual meeting. 

We literally reviewed thousands of submissions. Attendees can access the presentations for 24 hours, which means you can attend more than a full day of content, which is not possible in a live meeting. The downside is not being able to meet with colleagues. I am hopeful that the APAAM in 2022 will be an in-person meeting and we can all get together again.

 Share comments about your meeting experience (or anything else) with your colleagues by emailing 

This year’s theme is crucial to the role science plays in dealing with structural racism, a worldwide pandemic, and the inequities in terms of access to care for so many people.

Reflections on “The New Normal”: Embracing Change

Tony Thrasher, DO, DFAPA, discusses how the culture needs to change, and mental health professionals and law enforcement will be stronger as a collaborative team. 

Crisis Coordination With Law Enforcement: To CIT and Beyond!

, on Sunday, May 2, 2021 at 2:00-3:30 PM EST. 

is the president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (AAEP) and the medical director of crisis services in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin.

The president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry (AAEP) gives a preview of his APA conference presentation. 

Latest Conference Articles