Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology

In this “Brain Trust Conversations in Clinical Psychopharmacology” episode, host Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, spoke with Anita Clayton, MD, who is the Wolford Spratlin professor and past chair of psychiatry and neurobehavioral sciences at the University of Virginia and current president of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP), about sexual dysfunction as an underrecognized but cri...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of " Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology ," sits down with Carl Salzman, MD, to discuss the appropriate clinical use, misuse, and safety of benzodiazepines, including special considerations for older adults and their debated association with Alzheimer disease. Benzodiazepines have been used since the 1960s, Salzman reviewed, and largely repl...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sat down with Walter Brown, MD, to discuss the placebo effect in clinical psychopharmacology, including its mechanisms, the nocebo effect, ethical considerations, and practical strategies for harnessing placebo responses in everyday psychiatric practice. Brown traced his interest in the placebo effec...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sat down with Michael Ostacher, MD, MPH, to discuss managing co-occurring mood and substance use disorders (SUDs), including patient engagement, the "self-medication" narrative, and underuse of evidence-based addiction pharmacotherapy. Ostacher traced his approach to mentor Ken Minkoff, who argued ag...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Roy Perlis, MD, to discuss the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in clinical psychopharmacology, including its applications in treatment-resistant depression (TRD), suicide risk stratification, digital phenotyping, and the challenges of integrating AI tools into everyday psychiatric...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this special installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sat down with a panel of experts from the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology Annual Meeting (ASCP) Deprescribing Task Force while in attendance at the 2026 ASCP Annual Meeting in Miami, FL.  In the wake of the MAHA Institute summit on mental health on May 4, 2026, and the plans t...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with David Dunner, MD, FACPsych, to discuss practical insights into the evolving treatment of bipolar disorder and treatment-resistant depression. Dunner described the origins of the rapid cycling concept, which emerged from his chart review of lithium nonresponders at the Columbia Universi...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Martha Sajatovic, MD, to discuss the multifaceted challenge of medication adherence in psychiatric practice. Sajatovic opened by framing adherence as behavioral and attitude alignment with a prescribed treatment plan, noting that nonadherence was far more common than most clinicians re...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Henry Nasrallah, MD, to discuss off-label prescribing and polypharmacy. Nasrallah bases the discussion off his landmark analysis that demonstrated 88% of DSM  psychiatric diagnoses have no US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved pharmacotherapy, leaving clinicians with no choice...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Robert M. Post, MD, to discuss evolving perspectives on bipolar disorder and treatment, emphasizing early intervention and the underutilization of lithium. There is a high prevalence of childhood-onset bipolar disorder in the United States, noted Post, with approximately a quarter of c...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with child and adolescent psychiatrist Melissa DelBello, MD, to discuss the role of psychopharmacology in pediatric mental health treatment. Their conversation emphasized early identification and intervention for mood and related disorders in young patients. DelBello addressed common concer...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Michael Gitlin, MD, to discuss psychopharmacologic options for personality disorders. They highlighted the dimensional nature of personality disorders, contrasting them with the categorical DSM model. “The relationship between treating personality disorders and the use of medicines is...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Psychiatric Times ' very own editor in chief, John J. Miller, MD, to discuss the current state and future directions of pharmacogenetic testing. According to Goldberg, pharmacogenetics is almost like a Rorschach test in the eyes of many practitioners and patients: “It is thought to be...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Guy Goodwin, MD, to discuss the potential of psychedelics in treating depression and other mental health conditions. Goodwin, who is the chief medical officer at Compass Pathways, highlights psilocybin's ability to induce profound experiences that can lead to long-term improvements in...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Holly A. Swartz, MD, to discuss evidence-based psychotherapies for mood disorders, emphasizing a nuanced approach to treating depression.  If a patient prefers to start with psychotherapy, they should be given 6 to 12 weeks to see if it works before considering augmentation or switchin...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in this installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Roger S. McIntyre, MD, FRCPC, to discuss glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) agonists and their role in psychiatry.  McIntyre highlights the transformative impact of GLP-1 agonists on weight and glucose management. GLP-1s are "truly transformative," McIntyre says, as they affect the brain...

Joseph F. Goldberg, MD, in his first installment of "Brain Trust: Conversations in Psychopharmacology," sits down with Marlene P. Freeman, MD, to discuss the treatment of depression, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs), and pregnancy.  On July 21, 2025, the US Food and Drug Administration led an expert panel on SSRIs and pregnancy, in which they questioned the validity of psychiatric...