Featured sessions to be led by trailblazers in the field of mental health

MALVERN, PA (October 22, 2018) – HMP, a leading healthcare events and education company, has announced the 31st Annual Psych Congress will be held this week October 25-28, 2018 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.

With approximately 3,000 participants, Psych Congress is the nation’s leading mental health conference focusing on psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and wellness knowledge. The Congress serves as a unique, integrated forum to synergize connections among the entire mental health team including psychiatrists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, psychologists, primary care physicians, and other mental health professionals.

Featured speakers for this year’s conference include:

• Robin Carhart-Harris, PhD, Head of Psychedelic Research at the Centre for Neuropsychopharmacology, Imperial College London;

• David Granirer, RPC, MPCC, MSM, counselor, stand-up comic, mental health speaker, and founder of Stand Up to Mental Health, a program that teaches comedy to people with mental health issues;

• Nassir Ghaemi, MD, MPH, Professor of Psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine and psychiatric researcher with expertise in depression and bipolar disorder;

• Joseph Goldberg, MD, Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai with more than 190 peer-reviewed papers and four books on topics related to the treatment and clinical features of bipolar disorder and psychopharmacology; and

• Anna Lembke, MD, Associate Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine and one of the first in the medical community to sound the alarm regarding opioid overprescribing and the opioid epidemic.

“This year’s speakers bring a wealth of knowledge and new ideas to the table,” said Charles Raison, MD, Psych Congress Co-chair. “Carhart-Harris, Granirer, Ghaemi, Goldberg, and Lembke are all trailblazers in their field. They not will only share cutting-edge research, but they also will provide new perspectives and alternative approaches to treating mental health. They will certainly generate productive discussion on the topic and equip attendees with practical tools that can immediately be applied to patient care.”

Friday’s featured session — The Great Debate in Contemporary Psychiatry: The Use of Antidepressants in Bipolar Depression — will be a critical learning opportunity.  Drs. Nassir Ghaemi and Joseph Goldberg will face off to highlight the benefits and drawbacks of this ongoing practice. At the conclusion of the debate, attendees will have the opportunity to vote for the “winning” argument.

Beyond the featured speakers, the four-day scientific agenda begins with a preconference session, New Perspectives in Advanced Psychopharmacology: Improving the Quality of Care for Patients with Depression, designed to transform the approach to caring for patients suffering from depression by taking into account the mind-body connection. Preconference attendees will receive two complimentary books: The New Mind-Body Science of Depression by Vladimir Maletic, MD, MS, and Charles Raison, MD; and WILD 5 Wellness Ancient Practices for Modern Times: A Prescriptive and Proven 90-Day Mental Wellness Program by Saundra Jain, MA, PSYD, LPC, and Rakesh Jain, MD, MPH.

Also for 2018, the Solving Clinical Challenges Series has been expanded to four sessions and will address important topics including ADHD and Substance Use Disorder, Geriatric Psychiatry, Sleep Disorders, and Women’s Mental Health.

The Exhibit Hall will feature 115+ companies and give attendees the opportunity to review the latest offerings from academic book publishers, meet with pharmaceutical companies, speak with employee recruiters, receive valuable giveaways, and explore the poster pavilion where cutting-edge research and innovative projects are shared in a peer-to-peer educational format.

Psych Congress concludes with a special Panel Discussion and Town Hall to tackle a pressing issue plaguing mental health: suicide. On Sunday, October 28, members of the Psych Congress steering committee and expert panelists will discuss educational and training needs to ensure Psych Congress continues to provide the courses clinicians need in order to combat this epidemic.

Participants of Psych Congress 2018 will be able to earn up to 30 CME/CNE credits. For more information, visit psychcongress.com.

For media inquiries or press registration contact Kelly McCurdy at pr@hmpglobal.com.

About HMP

HMP is the force behind Healthcare Made Practical – and is a multichannel leader in healthcare events and education, with a mission to improve patient care. The company produces accredited medical education events and clinically relevant, evidence-based content for the global healthcare community across a range of therapeutic areas. Its brands include Consultant360, the year-round, award-winning platform relied upon by primary care providers and other specialists; Psych Congress, the largest independent mental health meeting in the U.S.; EMS World Expo, North America’s largest EMT and paramedic event; and the Symposium on Advanced Wound Care (SAWC), the largest wound care meeting in the world. For more information, visit hmpglobal.com.