In mid-2024, we convened the Southwest Forum on Difficult to Treat Depression: Focus on Approach, Algorithms, and Access with internationally renowned thought leaders, the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, with unrestricted funding from J&J Innovative Medicine Neuroscience and support from the Banner Health Foundation. The impetus for the Forum was a response to the pandemic’s impact on mental health refocusing interest on the burden of depression and anxiety across the lifespan – along with the launch of novel mechanism medications and brain stimulation that leads to rapid improvement in symptoms never previously observed in the treatment of depression.
Visit the following pages to read the academic highlights, watch the experts' insights videos, access the resource center, learn about the thought leaders, and find information about the Forum's sponsors.
- Academic Highlights (view/download the PDF)
- Experts' Insights Videos
- Difficult to Treat Depression Clinical Resource Center
- Thought Leaders
- Sponsors
Background
The increased efforts to prevent and treat depression is now a priority of health care systems, insurers, digital therapeutic engineers, telemedicine platforms, and community health agencies. However, the challenges of treating to remission those patients who don’t respond to first, second, or third levels of oral pharmacotherapy remain. The increased prevalence in these conditions is at odds with the shrinking psychiatric workforce.
Due to the fact that addressing persistent difficult to treat depression is situated in a rapidly evolving treatment landscape, it is vital that leaders in depression treatment:
- Consider the most strategic, cost-effective, and clinically useful sequencing of emerging treatments
- Implement patient and family-focused depression approaches to care that use the best efficacy and safety evidence in bringing clinical advances to the clinic.
The resources we feature above, created from the SW Forum and captured by the Journal of Cinical Psychiatry, address the emerging treatments that can be utilized to advance clinical care for our patients with treatment resistant depression.
Jordan Karp, MD - SW Forum Program Director
Professor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry
University of Arizona College of Medicine
Clinical Service Chief, Behavioral Medicine
Banner University Medical Center and Group - Tucson