News and Insights for Psychiatric Pharmacists

Join us for an industry showcase: Managing Depressive, Acute Manic & Mixed Episodes associated with Bipolar I Disorder In Adults, supported by AbbVie. Registration is free and open to the public!

Join us for an industry showcase: Tardive Dyskinesia: Considerations in the Pharmacy Setting, supported by Teva Pharmaceuticals! Registration is free and open to the public!

Access valuable psychiatric treatment guideline and clinical pearl resources at AAPP

Psychiatric and neurologic illnesses are highly prevalent and are often suboptimally treated. Pharmacists who focus on psychiatric and neurologic diseases improve outcomes for patients with these conditions. This is important in the current health care environment as most patients with psychiatric or neurologic conditions continue to have unmet needs. Read this MHC article to learn more about the value of psychiatric and neurologic pharmacists as part of the health care team. We hope you will consider exploring psychiatric and neurological pharmacy for your career.

Join us for an industry showcase: A Critical Moment in Schizophrenia Care: The Inpatient Opportunity, supported by Bristol Myers Squibb! Registration is free and open to the public!

Earn up to 5.5 ACPE contact hours during this on-demand, seven-part educational series! Webinars are immediately accessible. Register and start today!

#AAPP2026 Spotlight: The Pleasure Pain Balance in a Dopamine Overloaded World, presented by Dr. Anna Lembke, MD. Participants will learn how chronic overstimulation shifts mood and motivation, and why practices like dopamine fasting can help reset the brain’s reward pathways. Join us at the 2026 AAPP Annual Meeting in Bellevue, WA, on Seattle’s Eastside, for this session! #AAPP #psychpharmacy #acpe #bcpp #bcpmp

Momentum continued throughout 2025 in the areas of grant support, practitioner development, and sponsorship! View our 2025 Annual Report to see the impact. Thank you to the incredible donors who support this important work.

Collegiate Chapter Impact Grant recipients will share their grant-funded projects during the Collegiate Chapter Meeting on Sunday, 4/19! Join chapter representatives in the Cedar Ballroom from 4:45-5:15 PM Pacific Time. Presentations will not be livestreamed; however, they will be recorded and posted for those unable to attend live. Thank you to our donors for helping us continue this important grant program with your monetary gifts.

Thanks to generous AAPP Foundation donors and the AAPP Past Presidents' Destiny Fund, 33 PharmD students were awarded full, in-person student registration grants to AAPP 2026! Congratulations to each of the recipients and enjoy your time in Seattle!

In this year’s report, OCP celebrates its 30th anniversary, showcasing the Office’s contributions to the evolution of clinical pharmacology into a foundational pillar of drug development and regulatory review by enhancing efficacy and safety evaluations through rigorous, collaborative, and state-of-the-art approaches.

US adults likely have heterogenous views on addiction, and more research is needed to further understand how US adults conceptualize addiction.

In this study, SROM for OUD was associated with slightly higher treatment discontinuation risk than methadone but similar mortality risk, suggesting either medication may be appropriate alongside measures to support retention.

Stimulant-induced psychosis occurs in both therapeutic and nontherapeutic contexts but at vastly different prevalence rates.

While both PWUF and clinicians identified precipitated withdrawal as a major concern when initiating buprenorphine, it was just one of many barriers.

This paper provides an overview of SED, including the role of functional impairment in identifying youth with SED and the important developmental considerations.

The xylazine toolkit, intended to highlight the evidence base available and strategies of clinical decision making, was recently updated by AAPP member Sarah Thomason to include sections on regulatory status, laboratory testing and wound care.

National Volunteer Week coincides with AAPP 2026 in Seattle but we don’t want that to detract from celebrating our amazing volunteers. So, we are saying our thank yous a week early. Every year, approximately 215 members contribute their time and talent to AAPP as members of committees, the Board of Directors, task forces, and editorial boards. This doesn’t include the countless other members who write, speak, represent AAPP at meetings, and much more. Though we celebrate our member volunteers year-round, we want to give extra recognition and a thank you to our volunteers in advance of National Volunteer Week. Cheers to our AAPP volunteers!

AAPP joined numerous other Mental Health Liaison Group member organizations in expressing strong coalition support for the introduction and swift passage of legislation to remove the 190-day lifetime limit on inpatient psychiatric treatment for Medicare beneficiaries.

The CURESZ Foundation (Comprehensive Understanding via Research and Education into SchiZophrenia) founded by Bethany Yeiser and Dr. Henry Nasarallah has assembled a Clozapine in Schizophrenia Expert Panel (CLOSZE). The goal is to assist individuals living with schizophrenia and/or caregivers in finding a clinician who can assist them in trying clozapine. AAPP encourages psychiatric pharmacists to sign up for the registry so that patients/caregivers can outreach to establish ongoing care.

This report provides a guide to publicly accessible data sources to support research and improve data-driven decision-making for individuals dually eligible for Medicaid and Medicare.

State Medicaid expansions from 2017 to 2023 increased access to medication treatment for opioid use disorder at a time when fatal overdoses were continuing to climb, researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open. That means coverage expansions can significantly affect uptake of addiction medicine like buprenorphine. The findings could be important for state governments wrestling with reductions in federal Medicaid spending.

Dr. Yelena Lugin, PharmD, BCPP, provides tips on telehealth services.

Expand availability to clozapine for those living with schizophrenia. Register now for the CURESZ Foundation Clozapine Panel!

The treatment of cannabis use disorder, special populations and co-occurring disorders as well as harm reduction strategies are also addressed in the toolkit.

The mock exam is composed of 150 questions based on the content domains and knowledge statements included in the BPS content outline. Register today and practice, practice, practice!

The CDC and White House Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) issued an advisory to notify the public about increasing reports detecting medetomidine in the illegal drug supply causing withdrawal syndrome. Medetomidine is used for sedation and analgesia in dogs but is not approved for human use. Medetomidine can cause sedation, bradycardia, and hypotension and stopping it after regular use may lead to severe withdrawal.

As AI chatbots become more widely used, questions are emerging about how they may affect mental health.

Fewer than half of outpatient facilities for substance use disorder accept Medicare, according to a new HHS report. But low reimbursement rates and difficulty finding mental health workers factor into clinics' ability to care for older adults who need behavioral health care, the report found.

These papers call on state leaders to refocus on SMI and serious emotional disturbances (SED) treatment and recovery— and to renew their commitment to system changes in improving whole-person health.

The primary outcome was change in Fatigue Severity Scale (FSS) score.

Evidence suggests that patients who lose a primary care physician experience higher emergency department use.

Nicotine vaping is likely to cause lung and oral cancers, a comprehensive review of more than 100 studies has concluded. According to the analysis, human and animal studies, as well as cell experiments looking at the effects of chemicals found in vape liquid, all point toward carcinogenicity. Those studies, published since 2017, record "increasing concern", the researchers report.

These findings suggest that PAT is no more effective than TADs under equal-unblinding conditions for the treatment of depression and highlight the potential role of blinding integrity.

Further research is needed to better characterize kratom’s mechanisms of liver injury and to inform clinical decision-making and public health policy.

These findings provide evidence-based guidance for treatment duration, realistic expectation-setting, and individualized prognosis determination in cannabis use disorder recovery.

The primary study outcomes were ROI ratios and net profits after 3 years in operation.

The Veteran's Health Administration (VHA) is the nation's largest integrated healthcare system. Hear Traci Turner, Pharm.D., BCPP share her experience as an outpatient clinical pharmacist at the VA.

Protect people. Protect communities. #choosepsychpharmacy #pharmd #psychpharm #AAPP

This 2-hour webinar focuses on developing appropriate techniques for answering standardized questions more accurately, identifying common issues in testing that may be hurting your performance, and analyzing your testing performance to improve accuracy, pacing, and endurance. Level up your test-taking skills!

This white paper offers practical recommendations for health care leaders, policymakers, peer support programs, and individuals and families, and covers workforce development, program infrastructure, outreach, outcome measurement and policy reform.

Lessons from 10 FORE Grantees that have expanded access to prevention, treatment, and recovery supports in rural communities.

This Recovery Research Institute summary highlights a cross-sectional analysis of National Survey on Drug Use and Health data showing.

The current evidence base is not sufficient to support the use of cannabis for the treatment of mental health conditions and demonstrates substantial risks of adverse effects.