From Mental Health Policy to Suicide, ISCTM’s Meeting Agenda Reflects a Broad Spectrum of Critical Issues Facing Mental Healthcare

WASHINGTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology (ISCTM) will gather in Washington, D.C., February 19-21, for their 9^th Annual Scientific Meeting to continue its work on the critical issues facing the treatment of mental health disorders.

Consistent with its multidisciplinary constituency comprised of leaders across FDA, NIMH, academia, and the pharmaceutical industry, the forthcoming meeting will focus on a broad range of important topics in mental healthcare. Mental health policy issues will be first to take center stage at the outset of the meeting on February 19^th. Susan Dentzer (Editor-in-Chief of Health Affairs) will lead a panel discussion of the post-election outlook for health policy, focusing on serious mental illness, health care reform and development of new treatments. Next, the potential impact of The Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) will be reviewed. This new initiative authorized by Congress will conduct research that will provide information about the best available evidence to help patients and their health care providers make more informed decisions. Speakers will include the leadership of PCORI and experts from FDA, academia and industry.

Other topics of the 9^th Annual Meeting will include a symposium on the assessment of suicidal ideation and behavior (SIB). The careful prospective assessment of SIB is an evolving area of research, one that cuts across ISCTM’s core stakeholders, including regulators, researchers, clinicians, and patients. Additional symposia will tackle issues ranging from novel treatments for schizophrenia to how drug therapies can be used to enhance psychosocial interventions.

Through ongoing working groups and semi-annual meetings, ISCTM strives to advance CNS clinical trials methods that are innovative, scientifically sound, ethical, and feasible. “I really applaud ISCTM. What I love about this group is that topics are debated in a way that is both frank but also collegial. By convening a disparate group of people with different ways of thinking and diversity of thought, there is an opportunity to have the important conversations that are needed to move forward on topics of central importance in mental healthcare,” said Rob Epstein, former Chief Medical Officer at Medco.