News and Insights for Psychiatric Pharmacists

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!

Improve your peer review skills! Discover the components to evaluate, the role of the peer reviewer, the skills necessary to critically evaluate a manuscript, and how to provide feedback to authors and journal editors.

Someone you love may face both a mental condition and a substance use challenge. They deserve steady support, starting with you. When more is needed, help is available 24/7. Call or text 988 anywhere in the U.S. Learn more: 988lifeline.org #MHAM2026 #SeeThePerson

Mental illness and substance use disorders are common in correctional populations. Watch this video to learn about a psychiatric pharmacist's role in correctional healthcare.

The 2026 AAPP Outcomes Research Grants provide $15,000 each to support retrospective studies on bipolar, clozapine, and MOUD. Mark your calendar for the Q&A session June 30, 2026! Get your questions answered and learn how to advance your research. #PsychPharm

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!

This toolkit provides a resource for recognizing, understanding, and managing episodes of agitation and forms of aggression encountered in clinical practice.

AAPP's newest policy brief addresses misinformation about the association between antidepressants and violence, emphasizing the safety and benefits of antidepressants for treating various mental health disorders.

Respectful communication about mental health is especially important during times of transition, including housing instability or reentry into the community. Compassionate words signal safety when people need it most. #MHAM2026 #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth

This article highlights state-level progress toward pharmacist reimbursement since the 2024 manuscript on this topic. A special thanks to the many AAPP members who assisted in the research and authorship of this manuscript which highlights expansion of pharmacist test-and-treat authority, new commercial coverage mandates, explicit Medicaid provider enrollment and reimbursement structures, and broadened scope-of-practice provisions tied to payment. Collectively, these developments reinforce the emergent bottom-up trajectory of pharmacist reimbursement reform and highlight the steady, incremental strengthening of pharmacist integration within state health systems.

This talk will provide a background on traditional kratom and an overview of the recent proliferation of novel, kratom-derived products. Industry marketing, confused media coverage, and dynamic government policy will be described, as all influence public health responses.

This paper introduces behavioral health, Medicaid, and public health agency leaders, administrators, managers, and policymakers to selected public child- and family-serving systems.

This systematic review and meta-analysis indicated a small association between antidepressants and ADHD or ASD.

CMS has formally acknowledged and encouraged the involvement of clinical pharmacists in medication management and deprescribing activities through team-based care models. In newly released billing guidance tied to Deprescribing Services Codes, CMS confirmed that pharmacists can contribute billable time through “incident-to” services provided under physician or non-physician practitioner collaborations. The announcement arrives as Secretary Kennedy undertakes efforts aimed at reducing unnecessary prescribing. For pharmacists already embedded in collaborative care models, this development represents more than billing clarification and signals a growing recognition of the pharmacist’s expanding clinical role in optimizing medication therapy. However, CMS has historically limited the codes pharmacists can bill incident-to physicians and non-physician practitioners, prohibiting service delivery for many patients. As such, AAPP has been collaborating with APhA and ASHP to fix the larger issue to allow pharmacists to submit codes through incident to mechanisms that reflect the complexity of care pharmacists are providing. More recently, we requested an audience with CMS to discuss this latest development in billing opportunities for pharmacists.

Studying for the BCPP exam? Test your knowledge with our 150-question mock exam! #psychpharmacy #BCPP #AAPP #BPS #boardcertification

This study provides key insights into the resource/cost requirements for implementing and sustaining each A.S.K.-PrEP strategy.

Police stop-and-search was associated with elevated subsequent overdose risk among PWUD.

In this trial of healthy adults who co-used cannabis and alcohol, cannabis edibles combined with alcohol augmented driving impairment.

This review identified that ketamine treatment was associated with instances of elevated liver enzymes.

These data indicate a need to identify and disseminate successful hospital-based strategies to increase prescribing of MAUD.

This study calculated frequencies and measures of central tendency.

These results suggest that MOUD access in supportive housing should be expanding, which could require embedding addiction care into PSH teams, leveraging behavioral health touchpoints, and addressing persistent disparities.

This episode examines how pharmacy-based models are closing gaps in addiction care deserts, how pharmacists can strengthen interdisciplinary care teams, and why fair reimbursement for pharmacist services matters for sustaining care in the communities hit hardest by overdose.

Clinicians are rightly expected to disclose their gaps in knowledge or their inability to forecast an outcome. Yet emerging AI tools often cannot, or will not, do the same.

Dr. Joshua Holland, PharmD, BCPP, PLPC, talks about how psychotherapy techniques have advanced and can provide healing and help people meet their psychological needs.

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

Parents and caregivers are often the first to notice when something feels different. Changes in mood, sleep, appetite or behavior may signal a young person needs support. #MentalHealthAwarenessMonth #SeeThePerson

The National Institute of Mental Health is an excellent resource for broshures and fact sheets on mental health disorders for patients, caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Printed materials can even be ordered free of charge!

Findings from this study suggest that restrictive policies on antidepressant prescribing are unlikely to align with public sentiment and may risk exacerbating existing inequities in care.

Practice, practice, practice! The 150-question mock exam lets you test your knowledge, pacing, and endurance before sitting for the BCPP certification exam. #BCPP #AAPP #examprep #psychpharmacy

AAPP's pharmacist toolkit on Xylazine is intended to highlight both the evidence base available as well as strategies of clinical decision making used by expert clinicians.

LGBTQ+ young people who reported living in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than a third of the rate of those who did not.

Symptom-based dosing decreased time to medical readiness for discharge compared with a scheduled opioid taper approach among infants cared for with ESC.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) recently announced efforts to curb psychiatric overprescribing at a MAHA Institute summit on mental health and overmedicalization. Per the press release, “HHS agencies are bringing together their collective expertise and aligning to evaluate prescription patterns for psychiatric medications, their benefits and potential harms, and elevate the role of nonmedication treatments and scalable, evidence-based solutions to improve mental health.” Read on to learn more about AAPP actions.

The Board of Pharmacy Specialties (BPS) is now accepting applications for the 2027 BPS Ambassador Program. Board-certified pharmacists interested can apply until June 12, 2026.

The incidence and risk elevation of incident mental disorders in cancer patients vary based on sex, cancer type, time since diagnosis and type of mental disorder.

Referring patients to behavioral health specialists for CBT and/or prescribing recommended pharmacotherapy with Collaborative Care Management can help to reduce patient morbidity and improve functioning.

The link between specialty-care-only policies and lower diversion and overdose risk is not supported by the reviewed literature.

These data indicate a need to identify and disseminate successful hospital-based strategies to increase prescribing of MAUD.

Actigraphy appears to be a feasible objective tool for sleep assessment in SUDs, though additional studies across diverse substances are needed.

Interactive sVMs can effectively dispense HR items and connect individuals to services, thereby having the potential to improve individual and public health. Contextual factors, such as location, may influence utilization.

Single-item patient-reported outcome measures are pragmatic tools for implementing measurement-based care in substance use treatment.

These results demonstrate substantial missed opportunities for MOUD treatment during pregnancy, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to improve evidence-based perinatal OUD care.

This cross-sectional study found a substantial increase in the percentage of individuals with OUD who received MOUD among almost all states.

Medicaid managed care plans located in Republican-leaning states were less likely to be subject to state requirements governing coverage and prior authorization of SUD treatment medications, with the exception of methadone, and were also less likely to align with requirements when imposed by states.