Professional

An impressive trio: a successful psychiatrist, an accomplished social worker with a PhD, and an astute young doctor of psychology with a bright future ahead of her, are father, mother, and daughter, who also happen to be ardent supporters of ADAA and the field of mental health.

Please note that this is an opinion piece by an ADAA colleague member --    "...the conclusion of a study published in Molecular Psychiatry in July 2022 – that there is “no support for the hypothesis that depression is caused by lowered serotonin activity or concentrations” – is not surprising, or even new. What is surprising is that popular media is interpreting the study’s conclusions to say that if serotonin is not the cause of depression, then antidepressants don’t work. Huh?   

As the old adage goes, there’s a first time for everything. In the field of psychiatry, we are cautiously celebrating a recent first-time recommendation by the US Preventive Services Task Force calling on primary care providers to screen all adults under the age of 65 for anxiety. Unlike screening for hypertension or diabetes, detecting anxiety can be a lot more challenging, and getting a valid and reliable screening tool is essential.

A newly published study on depression in the American Journal for Preventive Medicine reports that from 2015 to 2020 the prevalence of depression in the United States, particularly among adolescents and young adults in the nation, increased and that the pandemic contributed to a worsening mental health crisis.

With the emergence of I-CBT (which is not new, just new to many of us), we have additional options (for treating OCD). This does not mean we are throwing away other effective treatments like ERP and ACT. In fact, we are doing the opposite!  We have more tools  to provide clients to make sure they have the highest chance for success.