Novel Treatments to Overcome Clinical Challenges in Treating Major Depressive Disorder

Despite a number of distinct medication classes, only one-third of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) achieve remission with initial antidepressant therapy, and a substantial number of patients fail to achieve remission after as many as four acute treatment trials. Furthermore, many patients who respond to antidepressant therapy may experience residual symptoms that negatively affect their quality of life and increase the likelihood of relapse. There are a number of treatment strategies for managing patients with difficult-to-treat depression, treatment-resistant depression, and residual symptoms of depression; a number of these strategies include agents of novel, unconventional mechanisms of action. This archived live symposium will highlight recently approved and investigational agents for treating patients with MDD along with novel approaches to individualized therapy. Nurse and pharmacist-driven strategies to maintain MDD treatment goals and optimize patient outcomes will also be discussed. 

Steering Committee:
Patricia Cunningham, DNSc, APRN-BC
Associate Professor
Arkansas State University
Jonesboro, Arkansas

Patrick R. Finley, PharmD, BCPP
Professor of Clinical Pharmacy
School of Pharmacy
University of California at San Francisco
San Francisco, California

Disclosures:
• The Nurse Planner and members of the planning committee have no financial relationships to disclose.
• Dr. Cunningham reports having no relevant financial or advisory relationships with corporate organizations related to this activity.
• Dr. Finley reports having no relevant financial or advisory relationships with corporate organizations related to this activity.

Session Length:  1 Hour 2 minutes

Target Audience:  RN, APRN

Learning Outcomes:
Upon completion of this presentation, the participant will be able to:

1. Describe recently approved antidepressants and other novel treatments and their implications in treating MDD.
2. Discuss practical strategies that incorporate novel approaches to individualized MDD therapy.
3. Implement nurse-driven pharmacist-driven approaches to work with patients and one another to attain and maintain MDD treatment goals.

Keywords:  Depression, Pharmacology, Advance Practice

Continuing Nursing Education:
1.25 pharmacology contact hours.  * In order to receive contact hours, you must: Listen to the presentation, complete an evaluation, and earn a passing score on the post-test before the expiration date. You will have 5 tries to correctly answer the questions on the post-test and a score of 80% is required to pass. Once you have passed and completed an evaluation, the certificate will be generated online, available for you to print immediately. You cannot earn credit unless all steps are completed.

The American Psychiatric Nurses Association is accredited as a provider of continuing nursing education by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Accreditation of the continuing education activity does not imply endorsement by APNA or ANCC of any commercial products discussed in the context of this activity. 

Support for the Program:
This program is supported through educational grants from Alkermes, Takeda Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc, and Lundbeck.

Table of Contents
Activity Overview
Pre-assessment 
Major Depressive Disorder
Novel Treatments for MDD 
Conclusions, Post-assessment, and Evaluation

Pricing: Free

Release Date: January 4, 2018
The contact hours for this session expire:  January 4, 2019