Interventional psychiatry: What are the next steps?

Abstract

Psychiatry’s failure to address these changes would be a dire error, as psychiatrists could lose control of our field’s advances and growth. But this creates an even larger question: what are the next steps we need to take? We believe interventional psychiatry must be recognized as its own psychiatric subspeciality, receive greater emphasis in psychiatry residency training, and be subject to standardization by professional organizations. Psychiatry has incorporated procedures into patient care for almost 100 years, starting with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) and insulin shock therapy in the 1930s.3,4 However, in the last 10 years, the rapid expansion of FDA approvals of neuromodulation procedures to treat psychiatric conditions (including vagus nerve stimulation in 2005, transcranial magnetic stimulation [TMS] in 2008, and the device exception granted for the use of deep brain stimulation in 2009) has produced the moniker “interventional psychiatry” for this unofficial psychiatric subspeciality.5,6 If we are to establish interventional psychiatry as a recognized subspeciality, it is important to create a universally accepted definition. We propose the term refer to therapeutic techniques or processes that may or may not be invasive but require special training to perform. Additionally, interventional psychiatry should include even minimally invasive procedures, such as ketamine infusions, medication implants, long-acting injectable (LAI) medications, and processes that require a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS), such as those utilized with clozapine, esketamine, or olanzapine for extended-release injectable suspension7 (see “Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy programs: How they can be improved,” page 14). The proportions of clinicians who prescribe clozapine (7%)8 or LAIs (32.1% to 77.7%, depending on the patient population being To comment on this editorial or other topics of interest: henry.nasrallah @currentpsychiatry.com Guest Editorial