More than 80 organizations have signed a new letter asking federal officials to create a special registration so that qualifying providers can use telehealth to prescribe medications for substance abuse treatment. Telehealth advocates are once again putting pressure on the US Drug Enforcement Agency to finalize a special registration process so that care providers can
Some of the adjustments that have been made to residency education will likely outlive the pandemic in some form—and that’s a positive turn of events. Six months into the global COVID-19 pandemic, medical and psychiatric education has changed—in some ways permanently. Interviews with training directors indicate that institutions, trainees, and faculty have largely adapted to
APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., emphasized the ways telehealth has allowed Americans who might otherwise be cut off from mental health services during the pandemic to receive treatment. During a virtual hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on June 30, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., urged
“Grief leadership” is leadership at all levels that acknowledges and honors losses, normalizes grief reactions, helps to make meaning of the events, and supports a community in looking to the future. Responding to the ongoing disaster that is the COVID-19 pandemic will be “a marathon, not a sprint,” said Joshua Morganstein, M.D., chair of the
Interventions like telemedicine and virtual support groups have exploded in response to social distancing. Now researchers can fully measure how well these interventions work. Research about how the COVID-19 pandemic affects people with substance use disorder (SUD) can inform strategies for providing treatment and social support in a post-pandemic world, said Nora Volkow, M.D., director
During a virtual congressional briefing last month, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., and members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry emphasized the need for expanded access to mental health care through telehealth not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterward as well. The briefing, titled “Collective Crisis: Preparing for America’s Next Wave of Mental Health
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services is also proposing some changes to payment for services provided to patients with opioid use disorders. Psychiatrists will see on average a slight uptick in reimbursement under the Medicare program in 2020, according to the proposed 2020 fee schedule issued last month by the Centers for Medicare and
Physicians met with key lawmakers last month to urge passage of a new mental health parity law and discuss amendments to rules governing addiction treatment records and more funding for gun safety research. Leaders from America’s Frontline Physicians: The Group of Six, of which APA is a member, flew into Washington, D.C., last month to
An analysis of medical data from nearly 6 million Danes also found that in most cases, random chance may dictate which disorder people with co-occurring illnesses will develop first. Using the robust medical data available in Danish health registries, a team of researchers has developed the most comprehensive map of psychiatric comorbidity (the occurrence of
Experts in addiction and in digital technology say the app for opioid use disorder is an exciting development, but it remains to be seen if the technology will be widely used. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in December 2018 cleared for marketing a prescription smartphone application to help individuals being treated for opioid use
