Our SIG stands ready to take on new challenges and opportunities in the ever-evolving field of HIV Psychiatry. With a membership that now exceeds 700 members, we are more than just a community—we are a movement dedicated to improving the mental health and well-being of people with HIV (PWH).

In the coming year, our SIG will prioritize the development of our first guidelines, with a particular focus on assessing and treating depression in PWH. This initiative represents a significant step forward in our efforts to provide evidence-based, standardized care for this vulnerable population. We will also dedicate efforts to raise awareness and address the critical issue of chemsex, the practice of consuming substances such as methamphetamine to enhance sexual activity, which has been growing among PWH and will be highlighted in our new Substance Use Disorders Workgroup led by John Wells, MD.

Our educational efforts will take centerstage at the 2024 ACLP Annual Meeting where we will host symposia on integrative approaches to mental health care for people living with HIV/AIDS, including the use of innovative therapies such as ketamine and psychedelics, another original idea from Drs. Gabrielle Marzani and Andres Calagua. Additionally, co-chair Luis Pereira, MD, and others have submitted a symposium to this year’s annual meeting with the World Psychiatric Association about how to build bridges through medical education to promote holistic psychiatric care for people living with HIV/AIDS.

Finally, 2025 will be the year to unveil our SIG’s highly anticipated second book with APA Publishing: The Pocket Guide to HIV Psychiatry. We hope this book will serve as an easy-to-read reference for clinicians and trainees alike who want to learn more and excel in the care of PWH, and we will now join efforts to produce the third of Cohen’s Comprehensive Textbook of HIV Psychiatry, one of the most comprehensive references in the field of HIV Psychiatry.

As we embark on this journey, we invite all members to join us in our workgroups where we will continue to push the boundaries of our field. Whether your interest lies in psychotherapy, telepsychiatry, collaborative care, or another area, there is a place for you in our mission to build a brighter future for PWH. Together, we will continue to make a difference, one step at a time.

Visit the HIV/AIDS Psychiatry SIG page on the Academy website here.

This has been a highly productive year for our SIG.  We submitted several presentations for the 2024 ACLP Annual Meeting, where several (at least one per session) current SIG members are leaders or presenters:

Invited Presidential Session: Food and Brain Health, Uma Naidoo, MD; Phil Muskin, MD, FACLP; Kitty Garza, MD, FACLP.

Preconference Skills Course: The Use of Supplements, Vitamins and Minerals for Psychiatry, Ana Ivkovic, MD; Molly Cinderella, MD.

General Sessions: What’s Really Bugging You? The role of the gut microbiome in modulating psychiatric disease in the C-L setting, Molly Cinderella, MD; James Kimball, MD, FACLP; Drew Kiraly, MD, PhD; Nona Nichols, MD.

Heavy Hitters: Understanding and Treating Antipsychotic Induced Metabolic Syndrome (sponsored by the Cardiac Psychiatry SIG and our SIG), Aishwarya Rajagopalan, DO; Andrea DeSimone, DO; Junyang Lou, MD, PhD; Angela Camacho, MD.

Lifestyle Medicine for the Consultation-Liaison Psychiatrist, Seema Quraishi, MD; Gia Merlo, MD, FACLM; Ramaswamy Viswanathan, MD, DrMedSc, FACLP.

Unveiling the Healing Potential: The Power of the Vagus Nerve in Treating Psychiatric Illness—A Hands-On Experience (sponsored by our SIG), Andrea DeSimone, DO;  Ana Ivkovic, MD, FACLP; Rachel Sakla, DO; Millicent Channell, DO, FAAO, FNAOME.

Our SIG is also producing two ACLP podcasts: Exercise and Mental Health, Janna Gordon-Elliot MD, FACLP; Nutritional, Lifestyle and Metabolic Psychiatry Updates, Uma Naidoo MD. In addition, Dr. Naidoo wrote two book chapters in Nutritional Psychiatry for the new Essentials of Clinical Nutrition in Healthcare. Dr. Naidoo has also been awarded the 2024 Rundle-Lister Lectureship in Transformative Nutritional Medical Education by the University of Toronto.

Our SIG is preparing to enter several submissions to the 2025 APA Annual Meeting given the topic of Lifestyle for Positive Mental and Physical Health.

Visit the Integrative Medicine (Complementary & Alternative Medicine) SIG page on the Academy website here.

We are also pleased to introduce our three new Executive Committee Members: Lynne Boone, DO, Andrea DeSimone, DO, and James Rustad, MD, who join us in leading the SIG. Together, we are dedicated to advancing the field through symposia with ACLP, APA, and EAPM, offering insights and benefits that extend beyond the military and veteran care sphere.

With the growing number of veterans seeking care in civilian hospitals and clinics, our SIG remains dedicated to being a central hub for information, education, and collaboration within the Academy. We invite you to sign up and join our mission to enhance the psychiatric care of active-duty military and veteran populations.

Thank you for your continued support and commitment.

Visit the Military & Veterans SIG page on the Academy website here.

Our task groups are busily working away on designated projects and being diligent about maintaining deadlines for scholarly products:

SIG-sponsored symposia task force: Currently under the leadership of Badr Ratnakaran, MD, the task force has expanded its participants and continues to meet to prepare abstracts for informative workshops, symposia, and Skills courses for the ACLP Annual Meeting.

Education task force: Vincent Fryer, MD, has taken the lead on this task force, and group members continue to compile a list of online resources in neuropsychiatry. In collaboration with the Online Education Group, by this year’s ACLP Annual Meeting the SIG will have a newly launched website of video lectures, literature references, and neuropsychiatry-focused websites, among other educational resources for Academy member to access. The SIG has been invited to present an ACLP Education Committee-sponsored case conference; topics will include functional neurological disorders, traumatic brain injury, and autoimmune encephalitis. Robust monthly member case discussions via the listserv continue amongst our very active members.

Scholarship task force: Under the leadership of Flannery Meredith, MD, this task force has successfully led manuscript production. Currently, several scholarship projects are underway or have been published including: a systematic review on neuropsychiatric symptoms in COVID 19; a cross-institution retrospective chart review research study on treatment of neuropsychiatric symptoms after TBI; and an educational report on the history and success of our SIG. A systematic review on Huntington’s Disease and OCD continues to remain in progress.

DEI Task force: Led by Victoria Wong Murray (trainee), this relatively newly formed task force will be working on incorporating DEI initiatives and how they pertain to neuropsychiatry.

Case discussions continue on our listserv where members present a challenging, de-identified case on a neuropsychiatric syndrome for discussion amongst SIG members. These occur on average once per quarter. 

The group has also moved forward with developing an X (formerly Twitter) hashtag (Neuropsychiatry #CLPNEUROPSYCH) so that resources on C-L Neuropsychiatry can be widely accessed.

Visit the Neuropsychiatry SIG page on the Academy website here.

Many SIG members are also members of the Physically Ill Child Committee (PICC) of the American Academy of Child-Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), and both groups have active listservs. The linkage with this highly active forum allows shared communication and collaboration. AACAP continues to collaborate with the SIG, most recently on pediatric catatonia projects.

The SIG continues to discuss options to expand the use of our ACLP internal listserv, as well as options for increased involvement with other SIGs. Examples reviewed include collaborating on case conferences, collaborations on resources such as pediatric ECT access, and aid for Pediatric Psychiatry SIG members in networking.

Visit the Pediatric C-L Psychiatry SIG page on the Academy website here.

The SIG brings together like-minded C-L psychiatrists to promote psychological aspects of patient care. All psychological perspectives and psychotherapeutic approaches are welcome, including but not limited to cognitive, psychodynamic, motivational interviewing, humanistic, interpersonal, existential, positive-psychology, mindfulness, and somatic.

At the upcoming Annual Meeting we will brainstorm about several items for our SIG: mission and purpose; organizational structure and future leadership; the use of in-person and Zoom meetings throughout the year; educational activities; and resource development, including our Psychological Considerations Bibliography on the Academy website.

If you would like to join discussions on the future of our SIG or collaborate on future presentations, please join us. Do contact Craig Lichtman or Janeta Tansey directly with questions.

Visit the Psychological Considerations SIG page on the Academy website here.

Arun Gopal, MD, et al, has a poster accepted for presentation at the upcoming ACLP Annual Meeting. Many current telepsychiatry approaches to medical wards adopt an ‘on-demand’, ‘first available’ provider, and rotating shift model which fragments care, leads to inefficiencies, and silos psychiatry. The next era of telepsychiatry must adopt innovations to achieve dissemination of subspecialty expertise, say the poster presenters. Through a case study, they highlight the benefits of a virtual C-L Telepsychiatry service specifically developed to mirror in-person services, achieving patient-centered integrated care. The poster, Consultation-Liaison Telepsychiatry: The Next Chapter, is here.

SIG chair Terry Rabinowitz, MD, DDS, FACLP, serves on the APA Telepsychiatry Committee. He and several committee colleagues have a new paper in the Journal of Telemedicine and e-Health that reports on a telepsychiatry use survey among APA members.

Although telehealth was a viable means of delivering psychiatric care even before COVID-19, flexibilities at federal and state levels during the pandemic prompted mass adoption in a short timeframe. Little is known about how psychiatrists plan to offer care going forward and to what degree services will be offered virtually, in-person, or in a hybrid format. Hence, the group conducted a survey on telepsychiatry practice and potential barriers which was completed by 1,660 APA members.

Telepsychiatry Current Practice and Implications for Future Trends: A 2023 American Psychiatric Association Member Survey is here.

Dr. Rabinowitz has also been awarded a Special Recognition Award by the Academy. See: Academy Announces Awards, this issue.

Visit the Telepsychiatry SIG page on the Academy website here.

The course will focus on important changes in listing criteria and nomenclature, living donation, relevant toxicology, early liver transplantation for alcohol-associated liver disease, and vascularized composite allotransplantation. Participants will practice their new knowledge and skills in an interactive case study.

In addition, our SIG will be represented by several workshops, oral presentations, and posters. The topics in workshops will include consideration of social factors impacting living donation, communication in organ transplantation, and fostering whole body well-being in transplant recipients. Oral presentations will cover assessment of dangerousness in living liver donors, examining the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial and ethnic disparities in access to liver transplantation, and clinical utility of phosphatidylethanol (Peth) testing in liver transplantation evaluations.

During the year, the SIG will continue with rigorous monthly meetings, working on manuscripts, and contributing to the 2^nd edition of the Psychosocial Care of End-Stage Organ Disease and Transplant Recipients Textbook.

Visit the Transplant Psychiatry SIG page on the Academy website here.