Welcome to the ACLP Women’s Health SIG!

The Women’s Health SIG provides a place for ACLP members and others involved in both women’s mental health and consultation-liaison psychiatry to come together to promote research, clinical care, and education. We share clinical information, we share ideas, we collaborate, we network. The SIG provides:

• A discussion forum (listserv) for topics related to women’s mental health
• The opportunity for collaborative projects focused on research, presentations at annual meetings, or journal articles
• Face-to-face SIG meetings and networking at ACLP annual meetings
• An opportunity for trainees to get mentorship from leaders in the area of women’s health

The Women’s Health SIG meets every year at the ACLP annual meeting. We urge all professionals in the field of C-L psychiatry interested in women’s health to attend our SIG meetings and presentations at the meeting, and we welcome new members and their participation in our discussions.

Goals & Activities of the SIG

Integrating women’s mental health and perinatal psychiatry into the area of psychosomatic medicine was the key goal when the SIG was first formed in 2011. Until then, the only venue for women’s mental health and psychiatry were specific women’s health conferences and groups. With the founding of the Women’s’ Health SIG, a place was created for ACLP members and others who focus on women’s’ mental health to come together, to promote collaboration in program development, research, scholarly work, education, and clinical care. The goals of the SIG have expanded to:

• Provide a forum for exchange of ideas and address the challenges at the interface of women’s health and psychosomatic medicine. Our listserv is restricted to SIG members only, but we welcome all interested professionals to attend our meetings.
• Provide education and training in women’s health for psychosomatic medicine psychiatrists, general psychiatrists, and non-psychiatric health care providers. Our SIG-developed and presented scientific sessions at ACLP annual meetings help to meet this goal.
• Collaborate on research and journal publications related to women’s health. (See Articles below.)
• Provide quarterly annotations on recent journal articles relevant to women’s mental health. See the “Women’s Health” category of ACLP’s Quarterly Annotations on Journal Articles of Interest.
• Contribute to the list of important articles and books in the “Women’s Health” category of ACLP’s CLP Bibliography.

SIG and Member News

Meetings

The ACLP 2018 Annual Meeting was held Tuesday (pre-conference) through Saturday, November 13-17, 2018, in Orlando, Florida. At that meeting:

• The Women’s Health SIG gathered in-person on Thursday morning of the conference. Our SIG meetings typically include discussions of potential topics for presentation at future annual meetings, and current collaborative endeavors among SIG members.

  View the minutes of our 2018 meeting [PDF].

• On Wednesday afternoon, members of the SIG presented the half-day skills course Updates in Perinatal Psychiatry: Negotiating Clinical Challenges in a Rapidly Evolving Field.
• On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, six general sessions and eight posters on women’s mental health issues were presented by SIG members.

Ted Stern, MD, FACLP, editor-in-chief of Psychosomatics, presented the 2018 Dorfman Best Case Report award to authors Christina Wichman, DO, FACLP (center), and Rebecca Bauer, MD.

Awards

• Rebecca Bauer, MD, DO; Joanne Orfei, DO; and Christina Wichman, DO, FACLP were co-authors of the 2018 Dorfman Journal Paper Award for Best Case Report, “Use of Transdermal Selegiline in Pregnancy and Lactation: A Case Report.” The paper was published in the July-August 2017 issue of the Academy’s journal: Psychosomatics 2017; 58(4):450-452
• Nancy Byatt, DO, FACLP, and founding member of the SIG, received the 2017 Don R. Lipsitt Award for Achievement in Integrated and Collaborative Care at the 2017 Annual Meeting. She presented her Lipsitt Award workshop, From Research to Action: Using Science to Inform Maternal Health-Related Public Policy, on Friday afternoon of the meeting.

  In 2016, Dr. Byatt served as a visiting professor to Seattle’s University of Washington, having received one of three 2016 Visiting Professor Awards.

• Neeta Shenai, MD, was awarded a fellowship for 2016-17 in the Academy’s Webb Fellowship Program. Dr. Shenai presented the paper Traumatic Births: Developing a Screening Tool for Postpartum PTSD at the 2017 Annual Meeting.
• Amritha Bhat, MD, was a 2015-16 Webb Fellow and presented the paper Delivering Perinatal Depression Care in a Rural Obstetric Setting: A Pilot Study at the 2016 Annual Meeting.
• The Academy’s 2016 Dorfman Journal Paper Award for Best Review Article was presented for “Guidelines for Management of Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorders,” a collaborative SIG article by Drs. Laura McLafferty, Madeleine Becker, Nehama Dresner, Samantha Meltzer-Brody, Priya Gopalan, Jody Glance, Guitelle St. Victor, Leena Mittal, Patrick Marshlek, Laura Lander, and Linda Worley. The article was published in the March-April 2016 issue of the Academy’s journal: Psychosomatics 2016; 57(2):115-30
• Kimberly Yonkers, MD, won the 2015 Wayne Katon Research Award recognizing exceptional research and clinical work in the psycopathology in the medically ill.
• SIG founder Nehama Dresner, MD, FACLP, was the 2003 winner of the Academy’s Alan Stoudemire Award for Innovation and Excellence in PM Education for her work in “Training OB/Gyn Residents in Women’s Mental Health: A Program Review,” which she presented at the 2003 Annual Meeting.

Resources

For current and past presentations by the SIG and SIG members, see Presentations on a separate page.

On the ACLP website

• CLP Bibliography, particularly the Women’s Health section (ACLP member login required).
• Quarterly Annotations on Journal Articles of Interest. Women’s Health is usually one of the subspecialties included.

Other helpful sites

• Mother to Baby
  MotherToBaby, a service of the non-profit Organization of Teratology Information Specialists, is dedicated to providing evidence-based information to mothers, health care professionals, and the general public about medications and other exposures during pregnancy and while breastfeeding. Talk directly to the experts behind the most up-to-date research!
• MGH Center for Women’s Mental Health
  This website provides a range of current information including discussion of new research findings in women’s mental health and how such investigations inform day-to-day clinical practice. Despite the growing number of studies being conducted in women’s health, the clinical implications of such work are frequently controversial, leaving patients with questions regarding the most appropriate path to follow. Providing these resources to patients and their doctors so that individual clinical decisions can be made in a thoughtful and collaborative fashion dovetails with the mission of our Center.
• Postpartum Support International
  PSI [Postpartum Support International] brings together families, communities, and professionals working to support families during pregnancy, pregnancy loss, and the postpartum period
• Lactmed
  The LactMed® database contains information on drugs and other chemicals to which breastfeeding mothers may be exposed. It includes information on the levels of such substances in breast milk and infant blood, and the possible adverse effects in the nursing infant. Suggested therapeutic alternatives to those drugs are provided, where appropriate. All data are derived from the scientific literature and fully referenced. A peer review panel reviews the data to assure scientific validity and currency.
• Massachusetts Child Psychiatry Program (MCPAP) for Moms
  The goal of MCPAP is to improve access to treatment for children with behavioral health needs and their families by making child psychiatry services accessible to primary care providers across Massachusetts.

Articles

Articles published based on SIG collaborative work

• Lusskin SI, Khan SJ, Ernst C, Habib S, Fersh ME, Albertini ES. Pharmacotherapy for perinatal depression. Clin Obstet Gynecol 2018 Mar 20 [Epub ahead of print]
• Shenai N, Shulman J, Gopalan P, Cheng E, Cerimele JM. Fetal outcomes in intentional over-the-counter medication overdoses in pregnancy. Psychosomatics 2017 Nov 24 [Epub ahead of print]
• McLafferty LP, Becker M, Dresner, M, Meltzer-Brody S, Gopalan P, Glance J, Victor GS, Mittal L, Marshalek P, Lander L, Worley LL. Guidelines for the management of pregnant women with substance use disorders. Psychosomatics 2016; 57(2):115-30
• Mittal L, Wichman C, Byatt N. Bipolar Disorder in Pregnancy and Breastfeeding: A Practical Guide for the General Psychiatrist. Psychiatr Ann 2015; 45(8):411-416

SIG-UPs: Special Interest Group Updates as Letters to the Editor in Psychosomatics

In the May-June 2016 issue of Psychosomatics, SIG members Priya Gopalan, MD, and Pierre Azzam, MD, wrote a Letter to the Editor encouraging ACLP SIGs to use the journal’s Letters to the Editor feature to provide practical updates in research, policy, and clinical practice to the at-large readership of Psychosomatics. In subsequent issues, the Women’s Health SIG has written three letters, and the ACLP Neuropsychiatry SIG has accepted the idea and has written one letter so far. Listed below are Gopalan and Azzam’s initial letter and the three subsequent WMH letters.

• Gopalan P, Azzam P. Special Interest Groups-Sponsored Updates in Psychosomatics (SIG-UPs): Introduction and Call to Submission. Psychosomatics 2016; 57(3):335-336
• Dresner N, Sachdeva J. Special Interest Group-Sponsored Update in Psychosomatics: Food and Drug Administration Revises Pregnancy and Lactation Labeling. Psychosomatics 2016; 57(4):439-440
• Shenai N, Glance J, Marshalek P. Special Interest Groups —Updates in Psychosomatics (SIG-Ups): Alcohol Use Disorders in Women. Psychosomatics 2017; 58(1):91-92 [The Neuropsychiatry SIG’s letter is also in this issue on pages 90-91.]
• Spada M, Gopalan P, Wichman C. Special Interest Groups-Sponsored Updates in Psychosomatics (SIG-Ups): Oral Contraceptives and Women’s Mental Health. Psychosomatics 2017; 58(3):328-329

Psychiatric Times

Recent Psychiatric Times articles authored by SIG members are below. Currently in progress is another article, “Neuroendocrine Dysregulation in the PCOS, PMDD, and Perimenopause,” being lead by Dr. Janna Gordon-Elliott.

• Dresner N, Byatt N, Gopalan P, Miller LJ, Sachdeva J, Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine: Psychiatric care of peripartum women. Psychiatr Times, December 23, 2015
• Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine, St. Victor G, Wichman CL, Malakkla N: Speaking up: sexual harassment in the medical setting. Psychiatr Times, June 26, 2017

The Women’s Health SIG lunch table at the annual meeting offers informal networking with new and old colleagues.

Join Us

We welcome professionals focused on women’s mental health—from medical students to seasoned clinicians and researchers—to join our SIG and participate in our listserv discussions and in-person meetings, to collaborate on projects and publications, to connect with others interested in this special field, and to receive and provide support to fellow members.

To join the SIG, ACLP members need only edit their ACLP member profile. Non-members need to send an email to the Academy executive office. For details, see How to Join a SIG.

We encourage all of our SIG members to also become a member of the Academy of Psychosomatic Medicine. The Academy is an organization that serves as an inspiration, a chance for networking, and a place to learn. Academy membership has many other advantages including a subscription to the Academy’s journal, Psychosomatics. For information about becoming an ACLP member, please see Join ACLP

Contact Us

For questions related to the WMH SIG, please email us at:

• Priya Gopalan: gopalanpr@upmc.edu
• Nancy Byatt: Nancy.Byatt@umassmemorial.org