Question of the Day: What are you taking home?

Every day, Psychiatric News has been asking Annual Meeting attendees a question. For the last day of the conference, we were wondering: What is your biggest takeaway from APA’s 2025 Annual Meeting?

We heard from psychiatrists from across the country about how important the theme of “Lifestyle for Positive Mental and Physical Health” was to them, including one who has already incorporated what he’s learned at the meeting into his practice. Watch the video or read the lightly edited transcript below to learn more.

Gloria Odum, M.D., psychiatrist, Houston: This theme about lifestyle is quite pertinent in current times. My biggest takeaway is that in every sphere of life, it’s really important to implement all of the lifestyle interventions that we can, because that is a tenet of being able to maintain good mental health.

Cynthia Stonnington, M.D., psychiatrist, Mayo Clinic, Arizona: Certainly, I was incredibly inspired by Dr. Ornish really recognizing the very robust evidence there is for truly focusing on lifestyle changes as being a very core piece that we really need to emphasize.

Jessica Bodden, M.D., M.P.H., fourth-year psychiatry resident, UCLA: My biggest takeaway from the meeting overall is the importance of collaborative care. We shouldn’t be expected to work in silos. It’s important for us to collaborate with social workers, with psychologists, with community workers, to make sure that our patients are getting the care that they need.

Newton Agrawal, M.D., Ph.D., psychiatrist, San Diego: One of the things I’ve already incorporated, in terms of the health journey for our patients—I’ve learned to incorporate this pronoun called “we.” I did that just recently. I said, “We’re on this journey together for healing.” It just really engages patients and makes them feel like they’re really being cared for. It’s very healing to know that it’s a partnership.

Ruby Castilla Puentes, M.D., president, APA’s Hispanic Caucus: My takeaway from this conference is that if you have the right team around you, everything is possible. ■