Research on Pause: COVID-19's Impact on Drug Development

Author(s):

Michael Asbach, DMSc, PA-C, Psych-CAQ

Key Takeaways

COVID-19 has significantly impacted psychiatric research and drug development, emphasizing the high costs and challenges of clinical trials.
AI and technology hold transformative potential for advancing psychiatric research methodologies, according to Michael Asbach.
The pandemic may serve as a catalyst for innovation and improvement in psychiatric research, fostering long-term advancements.
Asbach's clinic is involved in nearly 100 clinical trials, with some still recruiting participants from the COVID era.

Let's explore COVID-19's impact on psychiatric research...

CONFERENCE REPORTER

At the Real Psychiatry conference, Michael Asbach, DMSc, PA-C, Psych-CAQ, shared how he feels COVID-19 impacted psychiatric research and drug development.

"It really does have an incredible impact on drug development, especially when you think about how expensive clinical research is. I think your average clinician doesn't realize how difficult and how high stakes they are," said Asbach.

In Asbach's clinic, there are almost 100 clinical trials going on—some of which are still recruiting from the COVID era. AI and technology may have transformative changes in this field of research though, shared Asbach.

"I'm hopeful that COVID will actually be an opportunity for us to look back 10 to 15 years from now and say, that's was when we realized we have to innovate and get better at this."

Mr Asbach is a psychiatric physician associate and serves as associate director of interventional psychiatry at DENT Neurologic Institute in New York.