Closing the gap: Raising medical professionals' transgender awareness and medical proficiency through pharmacist-led education.

Introduction: Patients who are transgender have unique population-specific needs and risk factors. Nationwide surveys of health profession school administrators indicate a gap in coverage of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender health content in their curricula. To address this gap, a pharmacist-developed transgender-health care focused seminar was presented to medical professionals, trainees, and students accompanied by a novel education assessment scale.

Efficiencies and outcomes of depression treatment by a psychiatric pharmacist in a primary care clinic compared with treatment within a behavioral health clinic.

Objective: This study compared the efficiency and increased access to care by a psychiatric pharmacist (PP) incorporated into primary care versus behavioral health clinic (BHC) prescribers for depression treatment.

Setting: The pharmacist's practice was based in the primary care clinics of an urban Federally Qualified Community Health Center (FQCHC).

Practice Description: PP entered into a supervised collaborative practice agreement at the FQCHC.

Kappa opioid receptor antagonism: Are opioids the answer for treatment resistant depression?

Introduction: Past trials of buprenorphine (BUP) in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) have displayed favorable results, although its clinical utility was limited by the risk of abuse or physical dependence. By combining BUP with samidorphan (SAM), the euphoric high is negated by an opposing mechanism, which theoretically reduces addictive-like properties while allowing the antidepressant properties to remain. As such, the objective of this article is to analyze the results of BUP/SAM premarketing clinical trials as adjunctive treatment for treatment-resistant MDD.

Association between regulator of G protein signaling 9-2 and body weight.

Regulator of G protein signaling 9-2 (RGS9-2) is a protein that is highly enriched in the striatum, a brain region that mediates motivation, movement and reward responses. We identified a naturally occurring 5 nucleotide deletion polymorphism in the human RGS9 gene and found that the mean body mass index (BMI) of individuals with the deletion was significantly higher than those without. A splicing reporter minigene assay demonstrated that the deletion had the potential to significantly decrease the levels of correctly spliced RGS9 gene product.

Development and delivery of a quality improvement program to reduce antipsychotic polytherapy.

Background: Although antipsychotic polytherapy is considered appropriate in limited circumstances (e.g., during a brief "cross-titration" period when switching medications), its increasing prevalence indicates use beyond this limited scope.

Weighing in: emergent diabetes mellitus and second-generation antipsychotics.

Of all the metabolic effects of some of the atypical second-generation antipsychotics, their potential to induce glucose dysregulation has induced a storm of controversy over the past several years. The numerous published epidemiologic studies are difficult to interpret due to the high background rate of type 2 diabetes mellitus in this population, the inherent problems with analysis of observational data, and the short duration of the available studies. A plan to monitor for weight gain, hypertriglyceridemia, glucose dysregulation, and other potential adverse metabolic effects resulting from antipsychotic treatment is critical.

Prescribing of antipsychotic medication in a medicaid population: use of polytherapy and off-label dosages.

Objectives: To describe the use of atypical antipsychotic medications in a Medicaid-enrolled population composed primarily of elderly and disabled patients. Our analyses focused upon the frequency of use of polytherapy with multiple antipsychotic medications and the prescribing of off-label dosages.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional retrospective analysis of oral antipsychotic medication use, as prescribed for this population in 2003.