Clinical Pearls in the Crescent City: Psych Congress 2022 Preview With Andrew Penn, MS, PMHNP, and Arwen Podesta, MD

Steering Committee Co-Chairs Andrew Penn, MS, PMHNP, Associate Clinical Professor, University of California, San Francisco, and Arwen Podesta, MD, Podesta Wellness; clinical faculty, Tulane Psychiatry; CMO NOLA Detox, New Orleans, Louisiana, share what they're looking forward to during the 35th Annual Psych Congress meeting. 

To learn more about the agenda and register for Psych Congress 2022, visit the meeting website here.

For live, on-site conference coverage and updates, keep an eye on the Psych Congress Network Psych Congress meeting newsroom.

Read the Transcript:

Arwen Podesta, MD: Hi, I'm Dr Arwen Podesta.

Andrew Penn, MS, PMHNP: And I'm Andrew Penn.

Dr Podesta: So I'm a psychiatrist here in New Orleans and I have a specialty in adult psychiatry, in holistic integrative medicine, in forensic psychiatry and I also am very passionate and board-certified in addiction medicine. I have a private practice in New Orleans where I do some work with multiple psychotherapists, and I also have a nutritionist and acupuncturist in my practice. And then I'm medical director and consult with several intensive outpatient programs and an intensive detox and residential addiction treatment setting here in New Orleans. I am looking forward to so many things here at Psych Congress. Andrew, how about you?

Penn: Let's not forget that you're also a fellow member of the Psych Congress Steering Committee.

Dr Podesta: That's right.

Penn: As I have been for the last 13 years, in addition to being a psychiatric nurse practitioner and professor at UC San Francisco, I do clinical practice at the San Francisco VA in our residency program and do research in psychedelics here at UCSF. And I'm really excited about Psych Congress this year, mostly because it's in New Orleans, one of the greatest cities in America, and it also happens to be your hometown, Arwen.

Dr Podesta: Right.

Penn: So tell us what we should look forward to at Psych Congress in New Orleans.

Dr Podesta: Well, aside from the food, music, culture, and just being in New Orleans, you are in for a treat. This conference this year is just chock-full of so many thought leaders speaking and sharing information. What a wealth and what a treat. I will be doing a talk on Sunday on the overview Of substance use disorders and treatment, and I'll be doing a theater that I'm excited about, emerging technologies related to prescription digital therapeutics. There are so many other conference pieces, some sessions on ADHD, some sessions on autism, Parkinson's, schizophrenia, really, you name it, the leaders in the psychiatric community are going to be here giving you loads of information. But also what I love about Psych Congress is we get clinical pearls, we get take home messages, we get so many tangible things that we can use in our practice. I'm super excited about you, Andrew, giving your talk on psychedelics and also Chuck, Dr Raison, doing some talks as well. So, what are you looking forward to?

Penn: I mean, most of all, I'm looking forward to being back together again in person. After a couple of years of having to do this virtually during the pandemic, I really realized last year when we were in San Antonio how important it is to be all together in the same place at the same time. It just really doesn't hold a candle to virtual conferences as necessary as those were for a couple of years.

I love the big tent that we have with Psych Congress with so many different professions being represented, all learning together, and particularly in New Orleans. I think we're going to have a lot of fun together. We're going out on the riverboat for our evening networking event. As you mentioned, I'll be doing several talks on psychedelics, one on the history of that topic in conjunction with Dr. Charles Raison. I'm also really looking forward to the talk that I'm doing with Dr. Saundra Jain about really what we've been dealing with stress and burnout of the last several years with all the additional stressors that COVID has brought us. We have Dr. Tom Insel, former director of National Institutes Of Mental Health coming to give a keynote address, and I'm really looking forward to hearing Dr. Rakesh Jain's talk about humor in psychiatry as we get towards the end of the week.

So I think it's really just going to be a fantastic agenda. There's so many different things going on. I think it's going to be difficult to choose where to go for people that decide to do the full credit package. They can catch the other talks that they couldn't make it to at the same time at a later date. There's just so much education on offer and so much opportunity for networking and for really having some fun in a great American city.

Dr Podesta: That's right. And I want to reiterate what you said about having multiple treatment professionals, not just MDs, not just MPs, not just psychotherapists all in the same room because we treat together so we should learn together and taking home these clinical pearls and also taking home lots of friendships. I look forward to it.

Penn: Yeah, me too. So on behalf of the whole Steering Committee and my fellow co-chair Dr Podesta, we really look forward to talking with you in New Orleans and look forward to enjoying that fantastic city together.

Dr Podesta: Yeah, I will be here welcoming you when you come through the doors. See you then.