{"title":"Resource Document: Advocacy Teaching in Psychiatry Residency Training Programs.","authors":"Katherine G Kennedy, Mary C Vance","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.25023020","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.25023020","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 3","pages":"348-352"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12207498/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144546446","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Andrea K Graham, Adrian Ortega, Isabel R Rooper, Arielle C Smith
{"title":"Mental Health Clinicians as Advocates for Effective, Equitable, Accessible, and Safe Digital Mental Health Services.","authors":"Andrea K Graham, Adrian Ortega, Isabel R Rooper, Arielle C Smith","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250001","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250001","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mental health clinicians are increasingly engaging with a range of innovative, technology-driven approaches to care, from telehealth to digital therapeutics, given their potential to significantly increase access to care among patients with diagnoses of varying clinical severity. However, the continued integration of digital mental health interventions into mental health service delivery requires ongoing attention to their effectiveness, cultural and linguistic responsiveness, equitable accessibility, privacy and security, and safety. Ensuring these factors are addressed requires efforts from multiple entities, with mental health clinicians playing a particularly pivotal role. This article describes approaches mental health clinicians can take to advocate for effective, equitable, accessible, and safe digital mental health services. Recommendations include selecting digital interventions with demonstrated effectiveness and providing expertise to further the evidence base, collaborating with patients to provide culturally responsive care, advocating for expanded delivery and coverage of digital interventions, and openly discussing safety and privacy considerations with patients.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 3","pages":"307-313"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12207501/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144546445","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Vincent Migliaccio, Tadeus Lopez Ulloa, Jessica Isom
{"title":"A Legacy of Advocacy: The Past, Present, and Future of Mental Health Professionals in Systemic Reform.","authors":"Vincent Migliaccio, Tadeus Lopez Ulloa, Jessica Isom","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250008","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250008","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Mental health professionals must promote population mental health through a structural approach that extends beyond the clinical encounter. This includes incorporating policies that target social and structural drivers of health, such as income, education, housing, and health care access. In this article, the authors review historical and contemporary advocacy contributions by mental health professionals, policy areas that influence mental health services, potential targets for advocacy interventions, barriers to and facilitators of advocacy engagement, and advocacy-related incentives for mental health professionals. Drawing on a novel model of advocacy and a framework for advocacy action planning, the authors demonstrate how mental health professionals can advocate for systemic change as a professional responsibility. By leveraging advocacy strategies across the domains of practice, communities, and government, mental health professionals can drive policy changes that promote equitable health outcomes.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 3","pages":"291-297"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12207503/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144546433","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Advocacy With and For Our Patients.","authors":"Ira M Lesser","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250018","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20250018","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 3","pages":"336-337"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC12207500/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144546437","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Melissa G Guineau, N Ikani, M Rinck, R M Collard, P van Eijndhoven, I Tendolkar, A H Schene, E S Becker, J N Vrijsen
{"title":"Anhedonia as a Transdiagnostic Symptom Across Psychological Disorders: A Network Approach.","authors":"Melissa G Guineau, N Ikani, M Rinck, R M Collard, P van Eijndhoven, I Tendolkar, A H Schene, E S Becker, J N Vrijsen","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.25023012","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.25023012","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Anhedonia is apparent in different mental disorders and is suggested to be related to dysfunctions in the reward system and/or affect regulation. It may hence be a common underlying feature associated with symptom severity of mental disorders.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>We constructed a cross-sectional graphical Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) network and a relative importance network to estimate the relationships between anhedonia severity and the severity of symptom clusters of major depressive disorder (MDD), anxiety sensitivity (AS), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in a sample of Dutch adult psychiatric patients (<i>N</i> = 557).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Both these networks revealed anhedonia severity and depression symptom severity as central to the network. Results suggest that anhedonia severity may be predictive of the severity of symptom clusters of MDD, AS, ADHD, and ASD. MDD symptom severity may be predictive of AS and ADHD symptom severity.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The results suggest that anhedonia may serve as a common underlying transdiagnostic psychopathology feature, predictive of the severity of symptom clusters of depression, AS, ADHD, and ASD. Thus, anhedonia may be associated with the high comorbidity between these symptom clusters and disorders. If our results will be replicated in future studies, it is recommended for clinicians to be more vigilant about screening for anhedonia and/or depression severity in individuals diagnosed with an anxiety disorder, ADHD and/or ASD.Appeared originally in <i>Psychol Med 2023; 53:3908-3919</i>.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 2","pages":"257-269"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11995902/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144054396","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Antonio L Teixeira, Allison Gregg, Melanie T Gentry, Swathi Gujral, Ellie Rapp, Lauren Oberlin, Olusola Ajilore, Sara Weisenbach, Regan Patrick
{"title":"Cognitive Deficits in Late-Life Depression: From Symptoms and Assessment to Therapeutics.","authors":"Antonio L Teixeira, Allison Gregg, Melanie T Gentry, Swathi Gujral, Ellie Rapp, Lauren Oberlin, Olusola Ajilore, Sara Weisenbach, Regan Patrick","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240046","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240046","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Cognitive symptoms and deficits are core features of late-life depression (LLD), with an estimated 20%-50% of affected individuals meeting diagnostic criteria for mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Cognitive deficits, especially executive dysfunction, have consistently been associated with poorer treatment outcomes among people with LLD. Furthermore, distinguishing depression with cognitive complaints or cognitive impairment from the early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) can be challenging. Cognitive concerns are often emphasized among those with LLD, although, paradoxically, their description of memory difficulty may include detailed recall of specific memory lapses. Conversely, people with AD often have limited insight into their progressive cognitive decline, minimizing and concealing their cognitive difficulties. Neuropsychological assessment is one of the most useful means of clarifying this differential diagnosis. A subcortical cognitive pattern is commonly observed among people with LLD, including psychomotor slowing, variable attention, and executive dysfunction, which can affect memory encoding and free recall. A broad range of therapeutic approaches have been applied to older adults experiencing LLD along with cognitive symptoms, MCI, or dementia. Most studies focus on treatments to address LLD or MCI, with relatively fewer examining treatments specifically at this intersection. Nonpharmacological strategies, including aerobic exercise, cognitive remediation, and neuromodulation, are highly recommended to improve both depression and cognition. Antidepressants may have benefits for elements of cognition among people with LLD, but they have less evidence for their efficacy for people with cognitive deficits and dementia. This review provides an updated conceptual and practical framework for clinicians evaluating and treating LLD.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 2","pages":"183-194"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11995896/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144054535","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Sophie I Elliott, Rachel B Katz, Robert B Ostroff, Mina Ansari, Sophie E Holmes, Gerard Sanacora
{"title":"Ketamine Versus Electroconvulsive Therapy for the Treatment of Depression: A Guide for Clinicians.","authors":"Sophie I Elliott, Rachel B Katz, Robert B Ostroff, Mina Ansari, Sophie E Holmes, Gerard Sanacora","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240040","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240040","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The effective treatment of major depressive disorder remains one of the biggest public health challenges globally. For moderate to severe cases, pharmacotherapy often falls short, leading to treatment-resistant depression. Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) has generally been considered the gold standard for severe cases of treatment-resistant depression. However, emerging evidence suggests that ketamine may serve as a promising alternative. Two relatively large noninferiority trials and three meta-analyses support the efficacy of both treatments but report contradictory findings regarding superiority. The authors discuss possible reasons underlying these discrepant findings, including variations in patient selection criteria, study outcome measures, treatment delivery, and site experience. Additionally, the authors examine the unique risk and benefit profiles of each treatment, highlighting patient-specific considerations. By evaluating the most recent evidence for the efficacy of ketamine versus ECT alongside key patient-specific factors, the authors aimed to guide clinicians in recommending the optimal treatment choice for each patient.</p>","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 2","pages":"195-205"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11995899/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144063365","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Ethical and Legal Aspects of Evaluating and Treating Mood Disorders.","authors":"Jacob M Appel","doi":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240041","DOIUrl":"10.1176/appi.focus.20240041","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":73036,"journal":{"name":"Focus (American Psychiatric Publishing)","volume":"23 2","pages":"208-211"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC11995900/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144042418","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}