Clinical Care
Adult Psychiatry (Alberta Campus) Clinic
The TTUHSC Psychiatry Residency Clinic is an integral part of our residents’ curriculum. It is a core rotation for 3rd and 4th year residents. Residents are responsible for patient evaluation, assessment, diagnosis, and management plan, as supervised by their respective Texas Tech attendings. Residents experience rotating at different clinics – general adult, mood disorder, child and adolescent, geriatric, neuropsychiatry, and psychotherapy clinic.
Clinics
The Mood Disorders Specialty Clinic (MDSC) has three goals. To provide care for mood disorders, train health professionals to treat mood disorders, and conduct research to better treat mood disorders. In the last 10 years, there has been a tremendous increase in effective treatments for bipolar disorder and major depression. Unfortunately, only 50% of patients receive care for a mood disorder, yet, if they are treated, over 70% show significant improvement. For the ones that do not improve with traditional antidepressants, neuromodulation and ketamine are available.
The clinic offers psychopharmacological, psychotherapeutic and neuromodulation therapies. Neuromodulation is with FDA-approved transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and FDA-approved vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). Psychopharmacological interventions include traditional antidepressants and intra-nasal ketamine. Ketamine is an FDA approved treatment for severe depression that has not responded to several antidepressants. Psychotherapeutic intervention depends on the patient’s goals. The therapist will work with the patient to identify what type of psychotherapy will be offered. Psychotherapy can be provided as the sole treatment or along with mediation or neuromodulation.
Mood Disorder Faculty:
Peter Thompson, M.D., M.S
Dr. Thompson is a tenured professor in Psychiatry, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, and director of the Mood Disorders Division. He is an expert on the biology and treatment of bipolar disorder and major depression. He runs the Southwest Brain Bank and his work has been published in leading psychiatry journals.
The Neuropsychiatric division in the Psychiatry Outpatient Clinic offers comprehensive evaluations of complex diagnostic conditions at the interface of psychiatry and neurology specialty.
The neuropsychiatry seeks to advance understanding of clinical problems through increased knowledge of brain structure and function. This division provides treatment for psychiatric aspects of neurologic disorders such as stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson disease and other movement disorders, multiple sclerosis, intellectual disability disorder, and epilepsy.
The Division of Neuropsychiatry is dedicated to improving the lives of persons and families affected by neuropsychiatric conditions through clinical service, research, education, and community outreach.
Other Services:
University Medical Center Hospital (Consult-Liaison Service)
The Consultation-Liaison Division is a dynamic service located at University Medical Center (UMC), the flagship hospital for The El Paso County Hospital District’s healthcare system. At UMC, our trainees are members of multidisciplinary teams treating patients with complex medical problems that may exacerbate or be exacerbated by psychiatric illness. Our service provides consultation to the Medical, Surgical, OB/GYN and Emergency departments.
In Addition to evaluation and management of patients with acute psychiatric symptoms, our faculty includes individuals with expertise in Mood disorders, Addictions, Geriatrics and Neuropsychiatry. We have adopted the hospital-based addiction consultation model for the treatment of patients with comorbid substance use and medical or psychiatric disorders.
We are a training site for multiple groups, including the Psychology department, medical students, and multiple residency programs, including Categorical Psychiatry, IM/Psychiatry, Neurology, and Family Medicine. We are also site for the Addiction Medicine elective rotation for Categorical Internal Medicine Program.
To complement the clinical experience, the CL Psychiatry Tuesday Conference is a bi-weekly meeting conducted by an expert in the field where the CL team meets to discuss a complex case or a journal article of interest.
Faculty Members of the Consult-Liaison Service:
- Peter Thompson, M.D. Chairman
- Pamela Lopez, M.D.
- Silvina Tonarelli, M.D.
Community Outreach
Rotations in 2nd - 4th year include a variety of clinics from the community. We partner with the Ysleta Del Sur Pueblo to provide care for the Tigua Native American population. We collaborate with the Child and Adolescent Fellowship to provide care to students at the Ysleta Independent School District clinic, through Child Guidance Center, and all across West Texas through the Children’s Psychiatry Access Network (CPAN) and Texas Children Health Access Through Telemedicine (TCHATT) programs. We provide services to teens and adults with substance use disorders through Aliviane. We provide consult service to the geriatric population through the Bienvivir all-inclusive senior health program, and serve our veterans by rotating at the Veteran Affairs (VA).
Addiction Psychiatry
Addiction Psychiatry is a sub-specialty within Psychiatry aimed at improving the lives of those suffering from Substance Use Disorders (SUD) and comorbid mental illness. Our Addiction services are currently provided through UMC’s CL Psychiatry Division to patients admitted to medical, OB, and surgery floors with a comorbid substance use disorder. Texas Tech Physicians provide consultation, assist in detoxification, and engage patients into long term maintenance treatment continued at local clinics in El Paso. TTUHSC at El Paso Psychiatry Department is proactively working with affiliate sites to improve addiction services in West Texas region.
Psychiatric Emergency Service (PES)
The PES/Admissions rotation provides residents with the opportunity to learn how to effectively triage, evaluate, and manage acute psychiatric emergencies. This ranges from seeing diagnoses such as acute mania, psychosis, depression, anxiety, as well as others. Residents will learn how to make a diagnosis and disposition, while also learning how to effectively manage behavioral emergencies.
Inpatient Psychiatry
Our program is affiliated with the El Paso Psychiatric Center (EPPC), a 74-bed psychiatric state hospital for children, adolescents, and adults. The hospital is managed by the Department of State Health Services. Residents, fellows, and medical students all rotate at this facility to evaluate and manage patients with different psychiatric conditions. Residents are also well-adept in testifying at the facility’s mental court.