By Albert Arias, MD
PSV President
VCU Health Systems
On Saturday, March 18, 2023, the Psychiatric Society of Virginia held its 2023 Spring Meeting. The meeting was well attended, and we thank everyone who came and all of those who contributed through sponsorship or with exhibits. We hope everyone enjoyed the meeting and had a chance to network with colleagues, friends, and local legislators. Congratulations to the award winners: Dr. Snehdeep Hanspal, Resident Award, Dr. Harry Gewanter, Distinguished Service Award and Dr. William Harp, President’s Award.
If you haven’t claimed your CME yet you can still do so online. Go to the PSV Mobile Meeting Guide at psvmmg.org, navigate to ‘Evaluations and CME’, log in with your email address and follow the instructions.
The first speaker of the day was Dr. Ananda Pandurangi, who spoke about Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: State of the Art & Future Opportunities. This comprehensive review of the literature and update was exciting and generated many interesting questions.
Dr. Saul Levin, CEO and Medical Director of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) gave us an update on The Changing World of Psychiatry – APA and DB’s Vision. We greatly enjoyed this talk and are grateful for Dr. Levin’s visit. It was great to hear about all the things our organization does, and everything planned for the near future.
After the break, I spoke about Precision Treatment of Psychiatric and Addictive Disorders with Machine Learning Models and Pharmacogenetics. It was exciting to teach about the future of precision medicine and how close we are to these technological advances in practice.
After lunch, the program resumed with a debate on Psychedelic-Assisted Therapies in Serious Illness Care: Opportunities and Challenges, featuring Drs. Roxanne Sholevar and Alden Doerner Rinaldi. This discussion on psychedelics generated a stimulating discourse and numerous questions. Their work in patients at the end of life seems transformative and is a major move forward in medicine. The potential merits, value and risks of psychedelics in other settings for other indications was explored.
Dr. David Oslin gave an update on depression pharmacogenetics and precision medicine, reviewing the latest results of a major VA Health system study of which he was the principal investigator, as well as the recent extant literature. The findings showing advantages of these guided treatments were well received, and although limitations were noted, the findings bode well for this approach and the potential value of similar therapeutics. Clearly there is room for optimism.
Lastly, Dr. Mark Niciu presented a review of the literature on ketamine treatment of depression, which was wonderfully thorough and concise. This was well received and generated numerous questions about how to best use the treatment.
Overall, the 2023 Spring Meeting of the Psychiatric Society of Virginia was a great success, featuring speakers who covered a wide range of topics and provided valuable insights to the attendees. Once again, we thank everyone who contributed and we look forward to seeing you all in the Fall, October 20-21, at the Hilton Richmond Downtown.
