Video

PUPC Recap—Recognizing and Treating Anxiety Disorders in Primary Care

Laura Melaro, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHCNS-BC


Key Highlights:

  • The presentation will focus on recognizing and differentiating anxiety disorders in the primary care setting.
  • Melaro will discuss trauma-related disorders and the overlap between psychiatric symptoms and physical presentations.
  • Treatment considerations will include antidepressant use and the clinical challenges surrounding benzodiazepines.
  • The session aims to provide practical clinical pearls for busy primary care clinicians managing patients with anxiety and related behavioral health concerns.

Laura Melaro, DNP, APRN, FNP-BC, PMHNP-BC, previews a practical primary care-focused presentation on anxiety disorders, with emphasis on recognition, differential diagnosis, trauma-related disorders, and treatment considerations. Drawing on her work in integrated behavioral health across federally qualified health centers, Melaro highlights the need for earlier identification and more appropriate management of psychiatric conditions in primary care, where behavioral health concerns frequently present through physical symptoms.

Additional Resource: https://www.hmpglobalevents.com/pupc 

Transcript

Hello everyone. I'm Laura Melaro. I'm a family and a psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner. I'm excited to present for primary practical updates in primary care. I am presenting a topic that is near and dear: anxiety disorders in primary care. And we're going to look at recognition, differentiation, and anxiety disorders, a little overview of trauma-related disorders, as well, as you know, looking at the conundrum that goes along with treatment of anxiety disorders.

I presently work in 3 federally qualified health centers. I'm over their integrated behavioral health, and that mainly focuses on early intervention for behavioral health issues, for identification, interventions, trying to get the standard of care improved in primary care for psychiatric conditions, but also, we focus on the physical health of patients who have severe mental illness. So, this is near and dear to my heart.

I love my focus on primary care with relation to patients with psychiatric conditions. I know how busy our primary care folks are, and I think to have some clinical pearls and some main things from myself and my counterpart, Brittany Albright, who has a wealth of experience in psychiatry as well as holistic intervention as well as substance use.

With the focus on anxiety disorders, we look at utilization of antidepressants. We focus on the conundrum of use of benzodiazepines, when to use, when not to use. We look at, you know, how can we do a better job of recognizing and giving appropriate care to our patients in primary care? You know, three-fourths of all interventions in primary care have some behavioral health component, and we know that anxiety has its own physical soliloquy. And so, I think it is important to learn how to recognize when patients present with physical symptoms that may be rooted in anxiety, how to differentiate those symptoms from other conditions, how to distinguish among the different types of anxiety disorders, and how to choose appropriate treatments. Hopefully, we're going to bring that forward for you in this presentation.

We hope that you will join us and that you will enjoy what we have to present. Look forward to seeing you.

 

This transcript was edited for clarity.

 

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