Meeting Highlights on Psychosis and Schizophrenia: The 3 Annual Chair Summit

The Institute of Medicine report Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions (2010) calls for CME to align learning with health professionals’ needs. To meet that goal, The 3rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, held in Chicago, Illinois (August 2010), brought together chairpersons in psychiatry and neurology to act as expert peer teachers for frontline clinician learners. Faculty and learners collaboratively evaluated evidence, shared ideas and clinical practice challenges, developed individualized clinical strategies, explored the role of the multidisciplinary team, discussed health-system issues, and translated the neuroscience discoveries into patient-centered practice improvements. This third article in the CME-certified companion series, “Meeting Highlights of the 3^rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, 2010,” will analyze plenary and breakout educational sessions on psychosis and schizophrenia genetic research, clinical research, and patient care. Highlights of the important issues related to management of psychosis and extreme or violent situations are discussed. Two clinical case challenges help cement previous learning and encourage readers to consider management options and sketch out patient-centered, tailored treatment plans. Summary points connecting research to clinical practice for each topic are also presented.     

Meeting Highlights on Psychiatric Clinical Challenges and Advancing the Science of Treatment: The 3 Annual Chair Summit

Health care providers encounter many patients who have a typical, bread-and-butter symptom presentation and illness course, and for whom developing a treatment plan is relatively straightforward. However, some patients have cases that are challenging because 1) their illnesses are atypical, severe, or treatment-refractory in nature; 2) their conditions are less frequently encountered in the clinical setting; or 3) optimal treatment has not yet been well-studied and clearly defined. In the neurosciences, such challenges often seem to be the rule more than the exception. Continuing medical education (CME) can help clinicians address these challenges and promote clinical competence regarding innovations in neuroscience technologies. In August 2010, psychiatry and neurology health care providers participated in a comprehensive neuroscience CME conference—The 3^rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development—that featured faculty chairpersons of psychiatry and neurology departments. This 4^th article of 5 in a CME-certified companion series presents meeting highlights on managing the complexities of neuropsychiatric care and on scientific advances, especially technology-based innovations. Specifically, clinical topics focus on recognizing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder that persists into adulthood; differential diagnosis of rage and aggression; treating borderline personality disorder; preventing suicide; and implementing care strategies for physician addiction. Rounding out this attention to difficult cases, technology highlights pertained to advanced diagnostic innovations in functional magnetic resonance imaging and to brain stimulation treatment strategies (ie, electroconvulsive therapy, deep brain stimulation, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, and vagus nerve stimulation). This article contains several patient cases and summary points connecting research to clinical practice.     

Continuing Professional Development in Psychiatry and Neurology: The 3 Annual Chair Summit

The continuing professional development (CPD) of clinicians is a critical process in protecting one of the United States’ most precious human resources. The American Medical Association considers CPD as a system in which physicians, with the help of educational experts, consistently enhance their own clinical practice to provide optimal patient care. CPD calls for clinicians to be motivated, self-directed, lifelong learners who are focused on patient outcomes. Continuing medical education (CME) is a powerful strategic asset to the CPD of clinicians, which aims to improve the lives of patients by translating research and evidence into clinical practice. The Institute of Medicine report Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions (2010) calls for CME to align learning with health professionals’ needs. To meet that goal, The 3rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, held in Chicago, Illinois (August 2010), brought together chairpersons in psychiatry and neurology to act as expert peer teachers for frontline clinician learners. Faculty and learners collaboratively evaluated evidence, shared ideas and clinical practice challenges, developed individualized clinical strategies, explored the role of the multidisciplinary team, discussed health-system issues, and translated the neuroscience discoveries into patient-centered practice improvements. This introduction introduces 4 companion, CME-certified articles of 2010 Chair Summit highlights, addressing the gap between evidence and practice in multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, sleep-wake disorders, Alzheimer disease, genetic research into psychosis, schizophrenia, treatment-resistant depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, posttraumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, physician addiction, suicide, and technology-based treatment.     

Meeting Highlights on Mood Disorders: The 3 Annual Chair Summit

Mood disorders are among the most common neuropsychiatric disorders. Major depressive disorder and bipolar disorder affect 14.8 million (6.7%) and 5.7 million (2.6%) adults in the United States aged 18 years and over in a given year, respectively; and these may be conservative estimates. In addition, these disorders are associated with significant disability and morbidity for the patient, and enormous societal costs. Regrettably, mortality is too common for patients affected; more than 90% of people who commit suicide have a diagnosable mental disorder, most commonly a depressive disorder.The 3^rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, held in Chicago, Illinois (August 2010), a comprehensive continuing medical education (CME) conference on neuroscience targeted to psychiatry and neurology clinicians and featuring relevant department chairs as faculty, included numerous educational sessions on unipolar and bipolar mood disorders. Notable topics in depression were management of subtypes (psychotic and anxious), onset in late life, available evidence regarding use of complementary and alternative medicine, and the impact of depression treatment on cardiovascular disease. Bipolar disorder sessions focused on patients with childhood onset of illness and those who require systematic therapy trials in order to arrive at the optimal, individualized treatment plan. Additionally, a forward-looking session was held on innovations, both diagnostic and therapeutic, on the horizon for improving care of bipolar disorder. This 2nd article of 5 in a CME-certified companion series presents highlights of these sessions with summary points connecting research to clinical practice for each topic.     

Meeting Highlights on Psychiatric Treatment Perspectives in Neurology: The 3 Annual Chair Summit

The Institute of Medicine report entitled Redesigning Continuing Education in the Health Professions (2010) calls for continuing medical education (CME) to align learning with health professionals’ needs. To meet that goal, The 3^rd Annual Chair Summit,The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, held in Chicago, Illinois (August 2010), brought together chairpersons in psychiatry and neurology to act as expert peer teachers for frontline, clinician learners. Faculty and learners collaboratively evaluated evidence, shared ideas and clinical practice challenges, developed individualized clinical strategies, explored the role of the multidisciplinary team, discussed health-system issues, and translated the neuroscience discoveries into patient-centered practice improvements. This 5^th and final article in the companion series, “Meeting Highlights of the 3^rd Annual Chair Summit, The Master Class for Neuroscience Professional Development, 2010” will summarize psychiatric perspectives on neurological illnesses and injuries: multiple sclerosis; traumatic brain injury; sleep-wake disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea; Alzheimer’s disease management; and psychiatric care of older persons, including a case from one chart review session. Highlights of current and emerging developments related to psychiatric treatment perspectives for the management of neurological illness are discussed. Summary points connecting research to clinical practice for each topic are also presented.