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Webinar: Pharmacological and Psychotherapy of Depression: Update and Best Practices
Friday, January 07, 2022, 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM MDT
Category: CPA Webinar

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REGISTER FOR ONE, OR BOTH! These sessions will be recorded for playback.

PROGRAM LEVEL (both sessions): Intermediate

Members pay $45 per webinar; non-members pay $55.

CEs: Each webinar is 1 CE credit

  • Friday, January 7: Pharmacological and Psychotherapy of Depression: Update and Best Practices
    Prescribing Psychologists integrate pharmacology with psychotherapy. The American Psychological Association has released a Clinical Practice Guideline for 2022 for this topic, across three age cohorts, which primarily focuses on psychotherapy but includes pharmacotherapy. Dr. Lia Billington’s presentation of this topic will primarily focus on pharmacology to equip the consulting or future prescribing psychologist on the rationales for using certain antidepressants over others, and including initial dosing and titration, along with possible adverse effects. Case examples will illustrate features of treatment plans utilizing specific pharmacotherapies and psychotherapies. Foundational concepts from this webinar will be referenced in a second webinar on treatment of anxiety.
    • Learning Objectives:

      1. Name three features of “expanded informed consent” (APA, 2011) that will give clients support in evaluating whether psychotropic medications are an option they wish to consider.
      2. Summarize the basic findings from the STAR*D study of antidepressants (2008), and list one recent update (2020) regarding switching to a different antidepressant if the originally selected one is ineffective.
      3. Compare and contrast the initial dosing of three SSRI’s with the NDRI bupropion.
      4. Describe the most common adverse effects of SSRI’s and how they can be prevented or managed.
      5. Identify antidepressants that are also sometimes used to treat sleep onset disorder or sleep maintenance difficulties.

  • Friday, January 14: Pharmacological and Psychotherapy of Anxiety: When does CBT (or other modalities) need add-on pharmacotherapy?
    In this second part of a two-part series about the integration of pharmacotherapy with psychotherapy, the rationales for adding medications to psychotherapy for anxiety will be explored. Additionally, two special populations will be explored: (1) clients with co-occurring anxiety and depression, and (2) patients with co-occurring substance use disorder, in particular clients in partial or sustained recovery. Case examples will illustrate features of treatment plans utilizing specific pharmacotherapies.
    • Learning Objectives:
      1. Enumerate at least three common general medical conditions which may cause clinical levels of anxiety via their pathophysiology.
      2. Classify three pharmacological treatments for anxiety based on mechanism of action; describe an empirically validated psychotherapy that could be utilized with each pharmacological approach.
      3. Rank-order anxiolytics from most safe to least safe to use with persons in recovery from substance use disorders.

Speaker: Lia Billington, PhD, MA


Lia Billington, PhD, MA, is a clinical and prescribing psychologist. She was the 27th psychologist (2012) to be licensed for prescribing privileges in New Mexico, where she continues to practice. She has also maintained licensure as a psychologist in Colorado since 1988. Dr. Billington currently teaches for the New Mexico State University Postdoctoral M.S. in Clinical 
Psychopharmacology. From 2010 to 2020 she held consecutive positions as Behavioral Science Faculty for Southern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency and Northern New Mexico Family Medicine Residency. In these positions, she supervised young physicians for many modalities of behavioral treatment, including psychopharmacology. Dr. Billington has also served on the two most recent revision committees of the Psychopharmacology Examination for Psychologists (PEP). Dr. Billington’s primary residence is in Colorado, where she enjoys outdoor sports and training for competitive ice skating for seniors.