Pharmacotherapy Carlat Reports

Expert Q&A

Treating Agitation in Patients with Dementia

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Agitation

CHPR: Can you tell us about yourself and your background? Dr. Metzger: I’m the medical director of psychiatry at Hebrew SeniorLife and an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. My work also includes training residents and geriatric medicine fellows who rotate through our facility. CHPR: You participated in the psychopharmacol

Expert Q&A

Anticholinergic Drugs and Risk of Cognitive Impairment and Dementia

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Agitation

CHPR: Can you tell us about your research? Dr. Gray: My research uses large databases to examine medication safety issues in older adults with the goal of optimizing healthy aging. My focus is on examining medications and risk for dementia, falls, and fractures—the types of outcomes that are not easily addressed in randomized controlled trials. CH

Clinical Update

Medications to Rapidly Treat Psychotic Agitation

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Agitation

Topics: | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Agitation Antipsychotics Aripiprazole Benzodiazepines Chlorpromazine De-escalation Diphenhydramine Droperidol Emergency Haloperidol Hydroxyzine olanzapine Pharmacotherapy Promethazine Psychosis Quetiapine Risperidone Violence Ziprasidone

If you work in an emergency department (ED) or psychiatric inpatient unit, you’ve encountered agitated and even violent patients. We can help many patients settle down by listening empathically, validating their emotions, and offering oral medications, but even with our best efforts, these interventions do not always work. Medications help reduce agit

Research Update

Can We Treat Depression by Targeting Inflammation?

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Agitation

REVIEW OF: Zazula R et al, Aust N Z J Psychiatry 2021;55(8):784–798 Recent data suggest inflammation may play a role in depression, prompting research into the efficacy of minocycline—a tetracycline antibiotic with anti-inflammatory effects—as an augmentation agent in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD). This study was a pooled

Research Update

Psilocybin: The New Holy Grail for the Rapid Relief of Major Depression?

From The Carlat Hospital Psychiatry Report, Metabolic Side Effects

Review of: Davis AK et al, JAMA Psychiatry 2020:e203285 Intravenous ketamine and intranasal esketamine (Spravato) offer hope in the search for a rapidly acting antidepressant. However, concerns regarding addiction, safety, and effect durability have prompted searches for alternative rapid-acting treatments. Psilocybin is a hallucinogen originally d

Expert Q&A

Pharmacotherapy for Autism Spectrum Disorder

From The Carlat Child Psychiatry Report, Autism in Children and Adolescents

CCPR: Welcome, Dr. Krause. Tell us a little bit about the recent paper you coauthored called Pharmacologic Management of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Review of Seven Studies (Kothadia RJ et al, Current Psychiatry 2021;20(1):33–38). Dr. Krause: Our study was a review of reviews. The aim was to see if we could find any new insights into medication treat

Clinical Update

Pharmacotherapy for Stimulant Use Disorders

From The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report, Stimulant Use Disorder

Topics: medications | Pharmacotherapy | Stimulants

Stimulant use is surprisingly common. In 2017, 5.5 million people in the US took cocaine, and 757,000 of these people used crack. Another 5.1 million people misused prescription stimulants, representing nearly 2% of the total population (SAMHSA, 2019; www.samhsa.gov/data/). Many pharmacological trials for stimulant use disorder have been conducted, but

Expert Q&A

Diagnosing and Treating Stimulant Use Disorders

From The Carlat Addiction Treatment Report, Stimulant Use Disorder

CATR: Welcome, Dr. dela Cruz. Tell us what you do. Dr. dela Cruz: I’m an assistant professor at UT Southwestern Medical School where I’m the adult psychiatry residency associate program director, and I teach medical students, residents, and fellows. Clinically, I’m an outpatient addiction psychiatrist where I treat a variety of patients with subs