NEI Podcast

In this episode, listen in for an extended Q&A session with Dr. Jeffrey Strawn as he answers your most pressing questions from his presentation on treating refractory anxiety disorders.

In this exciting extended Q&A session, Dr. James Knoll addresses your unanswered questions from his presentation on Mass Shootings.

How do we know how much sleep we actually need? Are devices like the FitBit accurate at tracking what stage of sleep we’re in, according to heart rate? How does substance abuse contribute to nightmares? In this episode of the NEI Podcast, psychiatrist and sleep researcher, Dr. Jade Wu answers these questions and so much more! Learn about her cutting-edge research in Part 1 of this episode. Dr. Jade Wu is a licensed clinical psychologist, sleep researcher, and host of the Savvy Psychologist podcast. She is a frequent guest on popular radio and podcast shows such as NPR, and quoted in popular press publications like New York Times, NBC News, and Huffington Post. Her current research focuses on treating sleep disorders in those with chronic illness. In the clinic, Dr. Wu uses evidence-based non-medication treatments to help people improve their sleep (and wake). Her approach is grounded in both science and compassion, so that her clients are empowered to live healthier and more fulfilled lives.  My website: www.JadeWuPhD.com Twitter: @JadeWuPhD Resources can be found on her website under the "Resources" tab.

How are social media platforms being used for negativity and what can people do to protect their mental health on these platforms? How have you used Tiktok and other social media platforms to help remove the stigma associated with mental health conditions, and to make a positive impact in the adolescent population? In this episode, we interview psychiatric nurse practitioner, Dr. Sarfo Kojo on how he is using social media to create a positive impact on mental health. Dr. Kojo Sarfo, DNP, PMHNP-BC is a Ghanaian-American Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurse Practitioner, entrepreneur, and writer. He graduated from The University of West Alabama with his Associate’s Degree in Nursing and then obtained his Bachelor’s in Nursing from Western Governors University. He went on to obtain his Doctorate in Nursing Practice degree from Augusta University with a specialty in Psychiatry. He has three years of teaching experience as an adjunct faculty professor with the College of Nursing at his alma mater, Augusta University. He has a passion for treating and caring for persons with severe mental health conditions. He is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Abrantie & Signora, LLC, which is a clothing company dedicated to spreading positivity and mental health awareness for teenagers and college students. Dr. Sarfo has over 328,000 followers on TikTok. For more information on Dr. Sarfo: https://www.kojosarfo.com/ Dr. Sarfo’s Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-kojo-sarfo-podcast/id1477749374 Dr. Sarfo’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/kojosarfo Dr. Sarfo’s Clothing Company: https://abrantiesignora.com/ Dr. Sarfo’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/You-Already-Won-Education-Awareness/dp/1692141805/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=dr.+kojo+sarfo&qid=1603218480&sr=8-1  

What is an ecological momentary assessment? How are ecological momentary interventions powerful and helpful in a clinical research setting? Learn more about how digital technology, smart phone applications, electronic surveys, and wearable devices can help in both the clinical research and the clinical treatment arena. In this fascinating interview with Dr. Katherine Houghton, she answers your most pressing questions about applying digital technology to capture real-world/real-time data, and to help patients at the most critical times. Katherine Houghton, Ph.D. is fascinated by the intersection of technology and psychology. She is actively engaged in designing and testing systems to facilitate positive behavior change in a variety of populations. She co-founded ilumivu in 2009 (ilumivu.com) to provide software systems to researchers and clinicians to capture human data and deliver just-in-time interventions. Ilumivu's first software service was for parents of children with autism to track symptom change and treatment use in an online HIPAA compliant, sharable platform. Since then ilumivu has provided web, mobile and wearable systems to researchers and clinicians working with a wide range of populations including substance abuse, suicide, anxiety and depression. They are committed to finding innovative and effective ways to use everyday technology to improve the daily life experience of the millions of people who suffer with mental health issues. *Optional*Kat is also very engaged in local environmental activism bringing Community Rights and the Rights of Nature to the City of Asheville through a nonprofit she co-founded, Community Roots (cmroots.com). She also leads wilderness Rites of Passage ceremonies to help people through challenging times. Resources: Ilumivu website: https://ilumivu.com/ Ilumivu Twitter: https://twitter.com/ilumivuTweets Kat's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathoughton/ Website to Kat's non-profit, Community Roots: https://www.cmroots.com/   Need to fulfill your CME credits? Join us virtually at NEI Max! and earn up to 28.75 CME credits. Check out with promo code PODCAST09 to get 10% off.  

Opioid addiction, abuse, and overdose have all grown to epidemic proportions in the United States as well as worldwide in recent years—such information is no longer up for debate. With an estimated 400,000 persons using illicit opiates each month, and another 4 million reporting use of prescription pain relievers for nonmedical purposes, in the United States alone, the debate now surrounds how best to treat those individuals suffering from opioid use disorder (OUD). In the past few years, there has been growing evidence for the efficacy of medication assisted therapy (MAT) for the treatment of OUD. However, there are still many challenges. Questions arise such as: What sort of training does a prescriber need to undertake in order to be able to prescribe medications for the treatment of OUD and how is this a barrier to treatment? How are the billing procedures for MAT challenging for clinicians who are prescribing? In this CME NEI Podcast, Dr. Larissa Mooney answers these questions and more on MAT for OUD. Optional CME Credits / Certificate Instructions: After listening to the podcast, to take the optional posttest and receive CME credit, click HERE. Learning Objectives: After completing this educational activity, you should be better able to: Describe the challenges to treating opioid use disorder (OUD) with medication assisted therapy (MAT) Explore treatments designed to optimize cessation of opioid addiction Discuss legal barriers and insurance barriers to treatment of OUD  Accreditation and Credit Designation Statements: The Neuroscience Education Institute (NEI) is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME) to provide continuing medical education for physicians. MDs and DOs: NEI designates this enduring material for a maximum of 0.75 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit ™. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity. A posttest score of 70% or higher is required to receive CME credit. Nurses and Physician Assistants: the ANCC and NCCPA accept organizations accredited by the ACCME as “providers of formally approved continuing education hours” (ANCC) and “Category 1 CME” (NCCPA). The content in this activity pertains to pharmacology and is worth 0.75 continuing education hour of pharmacotherapeutics. Peer Review: The content was peer-reviewed by an MD specializing in psychiatry to ensure the scientific accuracy and medical relevance of information presented and its independence from bias. NEI takes responsibility for the content, quality, and scientific integrity of this CME activity. Disclosures: All individuals in a position to influence or control content are required to disclose all relevant financial relationships. Although potential conflicts of interest are identified and resolved prior to the activity being presented, it remains for the participant to determine whether outside interests reflect a possible bias in either the exposition or the conclusions presented. Faculty Interviewer / Author Andrew J. Cutler, MD Clinical Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, SUNY Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, NY Grant/Research: Acadia, Aevi Genomics/Cerecor, Alder/Lundbeck, Akili Interactive, Alkermes, Allergan, Axsome, Biohaven, Daiichi Sankyo, Intra-Cellular, Ironshore, Janssen, Lilly, Lundbeck, Neurocrine, Novartis, Otsuka, Sage, Sunovion, Supernus, Takeda, Tris Consultant/Advisor: Acadia, Adlon, AiCure, Akili Interactive, Alfasigma, Alkermes, Allergan, Avanir, Cognitive Research, Intra-Cellular, Ironshore, Janssen, Lundbeck, MedAvante-ProPhase, Neurocrine, Novartis, Noven, Otsuka, Purdue, Sage, Sunovion, Supernus, Takeda, Teva Speakers Bureau: Acadia, Alfasigma, Alkermes, Allergan, Arbor, Avanir, Gedeon Richter, Intra-Cellular, Ironshore, Janssen, Lundbeck, Neurocrine, Otsuka, Sunovion, Supernus, Takeda, Teva, Tris Faculty Interviewer / Author Larissa J. Mooney, MD Associate Clinical Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences; Director, Addiction Medicine Clinic; University of California, Los Angeles Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, Los Angeles, CAChief, Substance Use Disorders Clinic, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA No financial relationships to disclose. Pre-Interview Author Sabrina K. Bradbury-Segal, PhD Medical Writer, Neuroscience Education Institute, Carlsbad, CA No financial relationships to disclose. The Planning Committee and Peer Reviewer have no financial relationships to disclose.  Disclosure of Off-Label Use: This educational activity may include discussion of unlabeled and/or investigational uses of agents that are not currently labeled for such use by the FDA. Please consult the product prescribing information for full disclosure of labeled uses.  Cultural and Linguistic Competency: A variety of resources addressing cultural and linguistic competency can be found in this linked handout.  Support: This activity is supported by an unrestricted educational grant from Alkermes.  Released: Sept 30, 2020          CME credit expires: Sept 30, 2023   Need to fulfill your CME credits? Join us virtually at NEI Max! and earn up to 28.75 CME credits. Check out with promo code PODCAST09 to get 10% off.

September is National Recovery Month! In this invigorating interview with addiction expert, Dr. Nzinga Harrison, we discuss the need for removing the stigma and misconceptions surrounding the topic of addiction, and how to apply treatment strategies focused on understanding compassion, and evidence-based scientific research. When it comes to addiction, there are many questions. What does it mean to say that someone is in recovery? What are some behavioral addictions that most people don’t think about? Are there such things as healthy addictions? In this episode, Dr. Harrison shares a refreshing and novel perspective on the topics of addiction and recovery. A well-respected physician and educator, Dr. Harrison is the host of the In Recovery weekly podcast by Lemonada Media, she engages a large audience on all things addiction with the goal of leading with compassion, evidence and reducing stigma.   She is Chief Medical Officer and Co-Founder of  Eleanor Health, an innovative company who provides comprehensive, longitudinal outpatient care for individuals experiencing opioid and other substance use disorders. She earned her Bachelor’s degree in Biology with Spanish and Chemistry minors at Howard University, completed medical school at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and General Psychiatry Residency at Emory University.   She is Board-Certified in both Adult General Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine and has spent her career treating individuals with Serious Persistent Mental Illness and Addictive Diseases.  Currently, she holds adjunct faculty appointments at the Morehouse School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry is Co-Founder of Physicians for Criminal Justice Reform, Inc. and Campaign Psychiatrist for Let’s Get Mentally Fit, a public education and stigma-reduction campaign.   Resources: Dr. Nzinga Harrison’s In Recovery Podcast: https://www.lemonadamedia.com/show/in-recovery/ Eleanor Health: https://www.eleanorhealth.com/  

When it comes to serious mental illness (SMI), mental health professionals work hard to help remove the associated negative stigma, and to educate patients and caregivers to help them thrive. In this episode, we interview two clinical experts who are part of an interdisciplinary team at the APA/SMI Advisor program. This joint initiative between the American Psychiatric Association and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, or SAMSHA is an innovative clinical support program for clinicians, caregivers, and patients with serious mental illness.  In this episode, we discuss the topic of serious mental illness with two mental health experts, Dr. Donna Rolin and Dr. Joseph Ventura. We also discuss their upcoming joint-presentation at this year’s APNA, on the importance of incorporating the Basic Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) into practice.   Donna Rolin, Ph.D. is Clinical Associate Professor and the Director of the Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner program at the University of Texas with 23 years of experience in psychiatric nursing. She is co-leading inter-disciplinary graduate training initiatives with Schools of Nursing, Medicine, Educational Psychology, Social Work, and Pharmacy with funding from the Health Resources and Services Administration and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board aiming to expand a culturally diverse workforce for underserved populations. She serves as the Co-Director of the Institute for Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault (IDVSA), working alongside Schools of Social Work, Law and Bureau of Business Research. Dr. Rolin’s current research focuses on wellness self-management for mental health promotion and the integration of telepresence robots in healthcare education. Dr. Rolin serves on the national Board of Directors of the American Psychiatric Nurses Association and the local Board of the Directors of the Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses of Austin. Dr. Rolin continues her clinical practice as a Psychiatric Advanced Practice Registered Nurse with a community-based group working with underserved patients with serious mental illnesses (SMI), neurocognitive disorders, and intellectual disabilities in outpatient, long term care, telepsychiatry, and inpatient psychiatric facilities. She acts as the SMI Nursing Expert on the American Psychiatric Association’s Clinical Support Services for SMI (CSS-SMI) Clinical Expert Team. Joseph Ventura, Ph.D. is a Clinical Psychologist and Research Scientist with expertise in the assessment and treatment of individuals with serious mental illness. Dr. Ventura is the Director of Cognitive Training and Diagnosis and Symptom Assessment for the UCLA Aftercare Program. His areas of expertise include cognitive remediation, assessment of neurocognitive functioning, psychiatric diagnosis, symptom assessment, recovery from mental illness, and evaluation of functional outcomes in the early phase of schizophrenia. Dr. Ventura has led research funded by several agencies most notably the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Brain and Behavior Foundation (formerly NARSAD). His research has concentrated on stressful life events, positive and negative symptoms, neurocognition, social cognition, cognitive training, and predictors of course and functional outcome. Dr. Ventura has played a major role in the development and publication of methods for standardizing diagnostic and symptom assessment training and for ongoing quality assurance. His recent work focuses on clinical correlates of the core features of serious mental illness, dimensions of social cognition, inflammatory biomarkers, the development of interview-based assessments of cognitive functioning, and factors that are associated with recovery from serious mental illness. Recently, he was awarded a US Fulbright Scholar Grant to develop a program promoting early assessment, identification, and prevention of mental illness in clinical high-risk populations in North Africa. Dr. Ventura has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, lectured extensively, and conducted numerous training workshops both nationally and internationally. UCLA Aftercare Program: The UCLA Aftercare Program (brochure attached) is a joint clinical and research program located in the UCLA Department of Psychiatry specializing in the treatment of people who are in the early phase of schizophrenia or a related psychotic disorder. For over 30 years, and through NIMH and industry funding, our Aftercare treatment team has been providing comprehensive services to schizophrenia patients most of whom are transitional age youth (late teens or early twenties). However, we can serve patients from age 18 to 45. Our primary treatment aim is to assist patients with symptomatic and functional recovery after experiencing a first psychotic episode or who are within 2 years of the first onset of psychotic symptoms.  The Aftercare program provides a comprehensive set of treatment services to eligible patients including regular visits with a psychiatrist, anti-psychotic medication (second generation), case management, various forms of psychosocial interventions including group and individual therapy, a cognitive training program that is in some cases boosted by an aerobic exercise program, family education and support, and transportation to UCLA. Our clinic psychiatrists are Laurie Casaus, M.D. and Margaret Distler, M.D. Additional Aftercare services include, supported employment and supported education programs, family therapy, and providing research updates to family members. We can provide all of these services for up to two years at no cost to the patient or family because we are funded.   The Aftercare clinic is headed by members of the UCLA Department of Psychiatry, Keith Nuechterlein, Ph.D., Kenneth Subotnik, Ph.D., Luana Turner, PsyD., Joseph Ventura, Ph.D, who have been providing these services through the Aftercare Program for many years to early course patients. Rebecca Zornitsky, MSc. is our Community Liaison Specialist along with Taylor Jester and Elaine Clarke. APA/SMI Adviser Site & Resources: https://smiadviser.org/ Clozapine Center of Excellence: https://smiadviser.org/about/clozapine Long-Acting Injectable (LAI) Antipsychotics Center of Excellence: https://smiadviser.org/about/lai How to download SMI Adviser App: Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/smi-adviser/id1473024646 Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.smiadviser&hl=es_PE How to download My Mental Health Crisis Plan (Psychiatric Advance Directive [PAD]) App Apple: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/my-mental-health-crisis-plan/id1497373282 Google: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.smiadviser.apa&hl=en_US APNA Annual Meeting Presentation on Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) Annual Meeting 9/30 – 10/4/2020 (Virtual) https://www.apna.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=3467 Presentation on BPRS – Dr. Joseph Ventura & Dr. Donna Rolin Thursday, 10/1 @5pm ET https://www.apna.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=4595 2034: Advanced Practice 5:00pm ET - 5:45pm ET Using the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) as a Symptom Assessment Tool in Measurement-Based Care – RN, APRN This interactive presentation teaches participants to rate psychiatric symptoms using a structured interview, the Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale. The goal is to build and/or expand assessment skills for rating initial symptom severity and for monitoring symptom change over time to improve quality of treatment within a measurement-based care approach.  Abstract Presenters: Joseph Ventura, PhD; Donna Rolin, PhD, APRN, PMHCNS-BC, PMHNP-BC  

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is highly comorbid with other psychiatric disorders, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Unfortunately, there may be many overlapping symptoms between ASD and ADHD that make it difficult to distinguish between these disorders. In this fascinating episode, Dr. David Goodman examines the history of autism, Asperger’s disorder, and how to differentiate between overlapping symptoms for ADHD. He also addresses how to treat these disorders concurrently. Dr. David W. Goodman is an assistant professor in the department of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, and the director and founder of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center of Maryland in Baltimore, MD. His interests include adult ADHD, associated mood/anxiety/substance use disorders, and complex psychopharmacology.

What specific issues do female nurse practitioners, or physicians treating mental health face in the workplace? What are some of the work-life issues that women face, when it comes to balancing a career in medicine with family? What are the research findings on sexual harassment toward women in the mental health profession? In this important episode, Dr. Christina Girgis addresses these questions, and more! Dr. Christina Girgis is a psychiatrist in the Hines, Illinois area, certified by both the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and the American Board of Addiction Medicine. She is currently the Medical Director of the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry Service at Edward Hines, Jr. VA Hospital and the Associate Training Director of the Psychiatry Residency Program at Loyola University Medical Center. She is also the founder of Psychiatry Network, and several other professional Facebook groups. For more information please click on the link below: https://www.facebook.com/groups/psychnetwork/