43: Lloyd Sederer, MD: A Conversation About Addiction and the Opioid Epidemic

PSYCHPEARLS
What is addiction, and how can psychiatrists best respond to the opioid (and other drug) epidemic? What have we done wrong about it in the medication and other effective treatments for addiction? What does addiction do to the brain? Lloyd I Sederer, MD, a psychiatrist, public health expert, and writer provides key insights on what we can do to save more lives from overdose deaths. Dr Sederer is adjunct professor at the Columbia University School of Public Health; director of Columbia Psychiatry Media; Chief Medical Officer of Bongo Media; and chair of The Advisory Board of Get Help. He has been chief medical officer of McLean Hospital; affiliated with Harvard; Mental Health Commissioner of New York City; and Chief Medical Officer of the New York State Office of Mental Health, the nation’s largest state mental health agency. The mission of Columbia Psychiatry is to find the causes of and cures for mental illness. Dr Sederer’s most recent book is Ink Stained for Life: Coming of Age in the 1950s. A Bronx Tale. His website is at www.askdrlloyd.com.

About the hosts: Dr Coombs is a board-certified psychiatrist and assistant professor in Clinical Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. She serves as the medical director and team psychiatrist at ONTrackNY Washington Heights Community Service clinic. She completed her public psychiatry fellowship and adult psychiatry residency at Columbia University where she was a chief resident and co-organized the curriculum on racial/ethnic mental health disparities. In addition to her clinical work in the public sector, she also works in Columbia's psychiatric emergency room and has a private practice in Upper Manhattan. Dr Sotsky is a fellow in consultation-liaison psychiatry at Columbia University Irving Medical Center with a part time private practice. She was formerly a chief resident at Columbia’s psychiatry residency program. Before medical training, she received an MS in Narrative Medicine, an interdisciplinary field that studies illness through a humanities lens. She is co-author of Conquering Lyme Disease: Science Bridges the Great Divide and has interests in medical education, psychotherapy, and medical humanities.

Acknowledgement: Thanks to Columbia University Department of Psychiatry for allowing us to present the Breakthrough Session podcast with experts in the field of psychiatry.