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Date
7 August 2024
6:30pm
Location
St Andrews Conservatory, 128 Nicholson St, FitzroyDelivery
In-personTopic
Safely stopping psychotropic medication: The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines approach
Speaker
Dr Mark Horowitz a Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry in the National Health Service (NHS), London, UK will be in Melbourne on 7 August to speak at a Vic Branch CME Dinner.
Overview
The Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines: Antidepressants, Benzodiazepines, Gabapentinoids and Z-drugs is the first authoritative clinical handbook for how to safely stop psychiatric drugs. Withdrawal effects from psychiatric medications are more common, severe and long-lasting than previously recognised. Protracted withdrawal syndromes occur in some people who have stopped psychiatric medications and can be debilitating. Poor recognition of these withdrawal effects can lead to mis-diagnosis as relapse of an underlying condition or onset of a new physical or mental health condition. Tips are provided to distinguish these conditions from withdrawal effects.
Safely stopping antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs after long-term use in people who have difficulties involves three principles:
- stopping more slowly than previously recommended (months and sometimes years);
- reducing dose at a rate the individual can tolerate (involving some degree of controlled trial and error); and
- reducing according to a hyperbolic pattern (due to the pharmacological effects of the drug on the brain, dictated by the law of mass action, where very small doses have much larger effects than would be expected).
Speaker
Dr Mark Horowitz
Dr Mark Horowitz MBBS PhD is Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry in the National Health Service (NHS) in London, Visiting Lecturer in Psychopharmacology at King's College London, an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at University College London and a trainee psychiatrist. He has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action. He is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and is an associate editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.
He co-authored the recent Royal College of Psychiatry guidance on 'Stopping Antidepressants', and his work informed the recent NICE guidelines on safe tapering of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and z-drugs. He has worked with the NHS to develop national guidance for safe deprescribing for clinicians and has been commissioned by Health Education England to prepare a teaching module on how to safely stop antidepressants.
He has written several papers about safe approaches to tapering psychiatric medications including publications in The Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Bulletin. He has an interest in rational psychopharmacology and deprescribing psychiatric medication. He has experienced the difficulty of coming off psychiatric medications first hand which has informed much of his work.
Dr Mark Horowitz MBBS PhD is Clinical Research Fellow in Psychiatry in the National Health Service (NHS) in London, Visiting Lecturer in Psychopharmacology at King's College London, an Honorary Clinical Research Fellow at University College London and a trainee psychiatrist. He has a PhD from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College London in the neurobiology of depression and antidepressant action. He is the lead author of the Maudsley Deprescribing Guidelines and is an associate editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology.
He co-authored the recent Royal College of Psychiatry guidance on 'Stopping Antidepressants', and his work informed the recent NICE guidelines on safe tapering of psychiatric medications, including antidepressants, benzodiazepines and z-drugs. He has worked with the NHS to develop national guidance for safe deprescribing for clinicians and has been commissioned by Health Education England to prepare a teaching module on how to safely stop antidepressants.
He has written several papers about safe approaches to tapering psychiatric medications including publications in The Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Bulletin. He has an interest in rational psychopharmacology and deprescribing psychiatric medication. He has experienced the difficulty of coming off psychiatric medications first hand which has informed much of his work.
Registration
Price: $59.95
Includes: 3 course meal
Registration open until 4 August 2024 unless sold out earlier!
Contact
Please direct any queries to the RANZCP Victorian Branch
email: ranzcp.vic@ranzcp.org
phone: 03 9601 4924
Terms and conditions
Cancellation policy
Change of mind cancellations must be made in writing and sent to ranzcp.vic@ranzcp.org for a full refund by 30 July 2024. Cancellations made after 30 July will not be refunded.
If you are feeling unwell or have cold or flu like symptoms, or who may have been in contact with someone with COVID-19, please do not attend. If, on medical grounds, you are unable to attend the dinner, you must cancel your attendance in writing by email to ranzcp.vic@ranzcp.org. A full refund will be provided; however, you may be asked to provide additional details.
