We have all cared for patients and families reporting long wait times to see a therapist. And we know that for most patients with moderate-severe mental health concerns, the combination of medication and therapy works better than either intervention alone. Other BHCS newsletters address medication initiation for various behavioral health concerns, but what about non-medication […]

High turnover among therapists, psychiatrists, and primary care providers disrupts therapeutic alliances, causing emotional distress, reduced engagement, and treatment discontinuity. Building meaningful rapport often takes months—even years—and losing that relationship can trigger regression, hopelessness, or treatment dropout. It’s incumbent on both individual clinicians and healthcare systems to mitigate this disruption, safeguard continuity, and help patients […]

Many of the evidence-based therapies that healthcare providers use to treat youth emotional and behavioral concerns arise from literature in which under-represented communities were not included in the population sample. Therefore, a theoretical question arises in whether or not such therapies are indeed evidence based and/or applicable to under-represented minority communities. Moreover, it is possible […]

As discussed in a previous newsletter, psychotropic medications, particularly antipsychotics, can lead to clinically significant weight gain. Second-generation antipsychotics, such as olanzapine and clozapine, are believed to disrupt glucose, lipid, and appetite regulation by acting on dopamine, serotonin, histamine, and muscarinic receptors. These medications also influence hormones such as leptin, adiponectin, and ghrelin, promoting increased […]