Reflection by Jake Crouse
Advancing the science and practice of mood disorders is really hard work, and it is worth reflecting from time to time on why we do what we do.
In the opening address of the 2025 Australasian Society for Bipolar and Depressive Disorders (ASBDD) conference, Phil Mitchell reminded us of the immense disability caused by mood disorders, the unacceptable picture of suicide, and the reality that we’re grappling with conditions that are (in part) to do with the most complex object that exists (the brain).
EMCRs need to hear that these problems are hard from people who’ve spent many years grappling with them.
ASBDD had great coverage of the emerging science of novel therapeutics (chronotherapeutics, ketamine, blended models) weaved with stories of how people are affected and what hasn’t worked. There’s so much to do.
I was especially struck by a talk by Michelle Banfield. We need to be better at listening and working with people who are experts about their conditions, and to see them as more than their diagnosis.
It was a thrill to put on a workshop on actigraphy with two mentors (Jan Scott and Greg Murray) and to talk about work on daylight and depression (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39956653/) and consensus on the essential information for clinicians about chronobiology and chronotherapeutics of bipolar disorder (as part of the ISBD Chronobiology & Chronotherapy Task Force). Altogether, ASBDD was a great chance to connect and recalibrate on what’s important in this space.
