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Faculty

Shelley Matthews

Patient Advocate
none

I am Shelley Matthews, I graduated from College of Charleston in 2003 where I was a member of the Women's Golf team. My major was Psychology with a Minor in Women's Studies. I currently live in Birmingham AL with my husband, 2 teenage daughters and 2 doodles that rule our home. I have been a stay at home parent for most of the past 19 years, except for 3 years when I had a children's clothing store. I have battled many chronic illnesses including Stage 4 Endometriosis for which I advocate and try to help as many women as possible through my lived experience. The reason I am here is because I never give up and I have been incredibly blessed to have access to all the best health care has to offer in every area of my life.

2026 Sessions

Modern Psychopharmacology for MDD: Switching, Sequencing, and Augmentation Strategies for Partial Responders

Many patients achieve incomplete relief from first-line antidepressants. This advanced session reviews evidence-based switching protocols, cross-tapering considerations, and augmentation approaches, including lithium, T3, atypical antipsychotics, bupropion optimization, dextromethorphan/bupropion, vortioxetine, and off-label anxiolytics. Faculty will highlight strategies for common challenges such as emotional blunting, activation, and side-effect-driven discontinuation. Participants will gain a structured approach to managing partial response, improving tolerability, and rescuing stalled treatment plans.<br><br>Session developed in partnership with the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance (DBSA).

Speaker

Friday, September 18 5:00–6:00 PM
Room Great Hall A
DBSA Partner Session
Faculty

Shelley Matthews

Patient Advocate
none

I am Shelley Matthews, I graduated from College of Charleston in 2003 where I was a member of the Women's Golf team. My major was Psychology with a Minor in Women's Studies. I currently live in Birmingham AL with my husband, 2 teenage daughters and 2 doodles that rule our home. I have been a stay at home parent for most of the past 19 years, except for 3 years when I had a children's clothing store. I have battled many chronic illnesses including Stage 4 Endometriosis for which I advocate and try to help as many women as possible through my lived experience. The reason I am here is because I never give up and I have been incredibly blessed to have access to all the best health care has to offer in every area of my life.

Faculty

Mark Zimmerman

MD
Chief of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health
South County Psychiatry

Mark Zimmerman, MD, is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University and Chief of Ambulatory Psychiatry and Behavioral Health at South County Psychiatry.

Dr. Zimmerman received his undergraduate degree from Columbia University, and his medical degree from Chicago Medical School. He completed his postgraduate training at the Medical College of Pennsylvania, and held an academic appointment as assistant professor at the same time he was a resident in psychiatry.

Dr. Zimmerman is principal investigator of the Rhode Island Methods to Improve Diagnostic Assessment and Services (MIDAS) project. The MIDAS project has been ongoing for more than 30 years. The goal of the MIDAS project has been to integrate research methodology into routine clinical practice in order to improve clinical practice. By developing a large data-base containing symptom ratings and diagnoses based on semi-structured interviews, Dr. Zimmerman and colleagues were able to examine the generalizability of antidepressant efficacy trials by applying their exclusion criteria to patients evaluated in routine clinical practice and the generalizability of recent PTSD trials. .

Dr. Zimmerman is the author of more than 500 articles published in peer-reviewed journals, and serves on the editorial board of 10 journals. He is the associate editor of the Journal of Personality Disorders. Dr. Zimmerman was the Personality Disorders section editor for DSM-5-TR. He has developed several measures of psychiatric disorders for use in clinical practice. He is the author of the Interview Guide to Diagnose DSM-5-TR Psychiatric Disorders and the Mental Status Examination.
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