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The director of behavioral medicine at the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research at Cleveland Clinic detailed the need to incorporate interdisciplinary care and behavioral medicine in commonplace MS practice.
Amy Sullivan, PsyD, ABBPMeeting the all the needs of patients, including those related to mental health, is among the top priorities for clinicians when treating individuals with multiple sclerosis (MS). The heightened ability to change and adapt treatment strategies with input from multiple experts is what separates interdisciplinary care from other methods of care.
As the director of behavioral medicine at the Mellen Center for MS Treatment and Research at Cleveland Clinic, Amy Sullivan, PsyD, ABBP, has a strong passion for utilizing interdisciplinary care and behavioral medicine into standard MS care practices. Sullivan is expected to present “Science, Art, and Practice of Behavioral Medicine,” at the 2020 Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis (CMSC) Virtual Annual Meeting, May 26–29.
Amy Sullivan, MD: Interdisciplinary care is the wave of the future for patients with MS. At the Mellen Center, we’ve been really lucky to have this for several decades. It is so important because we all look at the patient from a different angle. When we’re able to do that, and come together, we give the patient a better opportunity to have a better outcome. We’re treating them from the mind, the body—really everything that the patient needs.
What is the greatest need that can be met by incorporating behavioral medicine into care? What work still needs to be done?
There is a lot of work that needs to be done in terms of creating a behavioral medicine practice in all of these major multidisciplinary centers. I don’t think that MS care is complete without behavioral medicine. The statistics in my presentation show that depression and anxiety occur 3 to 4 times as often in a patient with MS than the general population. If we’re not treating their behavioral medicine needs, we’re not treating them correctly as a whole. It is imperative that we start putting more emphasis on behavioral medicine and the MS care.
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