Mdedge Psychcast

Eliza W. Menninger, MD, spoke with Psychcast host Lorenzo Norris, MD, about how to help patients deal with anxiety related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Menninger is medical director of the behavioral health partial hospital program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. She treats patients with major depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, and schizoaffective disorder. Dr. Menninger also treats patients in McLean’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Outpatient Clinic. She has no disclosures. Dr. Norris has no disclosures. Take-home points Anxiety related to stress, fear, worry, and grief has spiked in all phases of the pandemic. Initially, we faced uncertainty not knowing how to adapt to restrictions, and we assumed that the adaptations would be short term. Six months into the pandemic, we’ve moved into questions about maintaining these adaptive processes over the long term. As the medical director of a partial hospitalization program, Dr. Menninger created an acronym, “MASK,” to help people cope with th