This May Be a Landmark APA Annual Meeting: From Lifestyle to Rallying

Psychiatry & Society

This week's episode of "Psychiatry & Society" comes live from the 2025 American Psychiatric Association (APA) Annual Meeting! H. Steven Moffic, MD, and colleagues

"I think this is one of the most important, and even landmark, psychiatric annual meeting in history," said Moffic.

Why? There are 2 important distinctions for this year's Annual Meeting: (1) The theme is lifestyle psychiatry, which Moffic sees as relevant to psychiatrists as much as patients due to physician burnout, and (2) A public rally of psychiatrists took place to protest the current state of polycrises, with influencing factors such as war, climate change, and more. Approximately 50-100 psychiatrists gathered with signs to express their feelings.

"There's been a lot of psychiatric activism in the past, but nothing collective that I have known of like this," said Moffic.

Why was this year's APA Annual Meeting special to you? Share with us at PTEditor@mmhgroup.com.

Dr Moffic is an award-winning psychiatrist who specialized in the cultural and ethical aspects of psychiatry and is now in retirement and retirement as a private pro bono community psychiatrist. A prolific writer and speaker, he has done a weekday column titled “Psychiatric Views on the Daily News” and a weekly video, “Psychiatry & Society,” since the COVID-19 pandemic emerged. He was chosen to receive the 2024 Abraham Halpern Humanitarian Award from the American Association for Social Psychiatry. Previously, he received the Administrative Award in 2016 from the American Psychiatric Association, the one-time designation of being a Hero of Public Psychiatry from the Speaker of the Assembly of the APA in 2002, and the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill in 1991. He presented the third Rabbi Jeffrey B. Stiffman lecture at Congregation Shaare Emeth in St. Louis on Sunday, May 19, 2024. He is an advocate and activist for mental health issues related to climate instability, physician burnout, and xenophobia. He is now editing the final book in a 4-volume series on religions and psychiatry for Springer: Islamophobia, anti-Semitism, Christianity, and now The Eastern Religions, and Spirituality. He serves on the Editorial Board of Psychiatric Times.