Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology

Lisa Harding, MD, says ECT, ketamine, TMS, and VNS can work, but evidence on what comes after acute response remains thin.

Explore why meds fall short for complex trauma—and how EMDR, body-based therapies, and psychedelic-assisted treatment reshape healing, safety, and time perspective.

Antipsychotic levels clarify adherence, guide dose escalation up to a point of futility, and offer more than pharmacogenetic testing, says Jonathan Meyer, MD.

How to interpret antipsychotic drug levels in schizophrenia: when labs mislead, when levels help adherence and toxicity checks, and why serial monitoring matters.

Therapeutic drug monitoring takes guesswork out of antipsychotic care—spotting nonadherence, guiding dose targets, and defining response thresholds and the “point of futility” in schizophrenia.

Explore how clinicians weigh ECT, TMS, ketamine, and vagus nerve stimulation for treatment-resistant depression—balancing speed, access, durability, and patient preference.

Learn how antipsychotic blood levels guide dosing, spot nonadherence, and set clozapine/haloperidol targets for better schizophrenia outcomes.

Learn why SSRIs impair sex and how bupropion, PDE5 inhibitors, buspirone, and newer agents can prevent or reverse antidepressant sexual side effects.

Experts unpack screening for sexual dysfunction in psychiatric care, menopause and meds impacts, and when flibanserin may help restore desire.

Learn how to spot and treat sexual dysfunction in psychiatric care—screen causes, manage SSRI effects, and choose libido-friendly medications.

Clinicians learn how to assess and treat sexual dysfunction in depression, menopause, and psych meds—plus drug options that preserve desire and arousal.

Experts weigh benzodiazepine benefits, dependence myths, and safer prescribing in older adults, including what evidence really says about Alzheimer risk.

Experts unpack benzodiazepines in seniors: Beers Criteria, fall risk, Alzheimer bias, and practical low-dose, mindful prescribing strategies.

Clinicians weigh benzodiazepine benefits against dependence fears, with expert guidance on safe prescribing, withdrawal tapering, and long-term anxiety treatment choices.

Experts unpack when benzodiazepines help or harm, tapering myths, older-adult risks, and why Alzheimer links may be overstated.

Learn how clinicians reframe side effects, curb nocebo, and boost outcomes using expectation, open-label placebos, and conditioning in psychiatry.

Experts discuss the impact of the placebo effect on psychiatric treatment outcomes.

Placebo and nocebo effects shape psychiatric care—how expectations and framing boost medication benefit and reduce side effects.

Experts unpack placebo and nocebo effects in psychiatry, revealing how expectation, framing, and alliance boost outcomes and curb side effects.

Learn how clinicians tackle mood and substance use disorders together, boost patient engagement, and expand evidence-based addiction medications for bipolar and alcohol use.

AI is reshaping psychopharmacology—from TRD prediction to digital phenotyping—while exposing data limits, workflow hurdles, and safety risks in suicide tools.

ASCP panel offers deprescribing guidance to curb psychiatric overprescribing, simplify polypharmacy, and improve outcomes with tapering and

Explore how to manage mood and substance use disorders together, boost engagement, and expand addiction medications.

AI may assist psychopharmacology by aiding suicide risk, digital phenotyping, and TRD care—while exposing EHR data limits and the need for smarter integration.

David Dunner, MD, FACPsych, reveals insights into rapid cycling roots, bipolar II, and weighing lithium as an often overlooked treatment option.

Experts reveal why psych medication nonadherence is common, how to discuss it without blame, and tools like CAE and injectables to prevent relapse.

Experts unpack why most psychiatric care relies on off‑label meds, how neuroscience guides safe polypharmacy, and what could reshape FDA approvals.

How AI can aid everyday psychiatry—TRD prediction, suicide risk, and smartphone phenotyping—plus why data quality and workflow still block adoption.

Experts urge early bipolar disorder treatment, highlighting lithium’s underuse despite neuroprotective, antisuicidal benefits and evidence that delays worsen outcomes and responsiveness.

Experts explain how careful pediatric psychopharmacology and early intervention protect development, curb relapse, and address substance-use risk.