ASHP-AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellowship

AFPE will accept application proposals for research projects which focus on improving health outcomes in hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory care clinics. Applicants to this award who are not selected will automatically be considered for a Pre-Doctoral Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The same eligibility requirements and deadlines apply for both awards. Stipend: $20,000 The 2022-2023 AFPE-ASHP Fellow is Madeline Brendle, doctoral student at the University of Utah. Title of Research: “Real world evaluation of the effectiveness, safety, cost of care, and barriers/motivations for adoption of esketamine and ketamine as pharmacotherapies for mental health conditions” “The goals of my project are focused on evaluating the effectiveness, safety, cost of care, and barriers/motivations for the adoption of esketamine and ketamine as pharmacotherapies for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and other psychiatric conditions in real-world clinical practice. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic traditionally used as an anesthetic and analgesic agent. However, at sub anesthetic-doses, ketamine has been observed to have dissociative/hallucinatory effects that have led to rapid and significant improvements in depression and other mental health conditions.^1-4 While racemic ketamine is only prescribed for psychiatric disorders as an off-label indication, esketamine nasal spray (Spravato^TM) was developed as a rapid-acting treatment for TRD and major depressive disorder (MDD) with acute suicidal ideation.^5,6 Both esketamine and ketamine have garnered interest with their novel mechanism of action for depression pharmacotherapy and rapid reduction of depressive symptoms as early as 24 hours post-administration of the medication.^2,4,5 I aim to increase the knowledge base of ketamine and esketamine as treatments for TRD and other mental health conditions in real-world clinical practice. Esketamine and ketamine are fundamentally changing how researchers and clinicians study and treat psychiatric disorders. By conducting this important work, researchers, clinicians, and patients can better understand the long-term and real-world benefits, risks, affordability, and accessibility of esketamine and ketamine treatment for mental health conditions.” Past Recipients 2020-2021 – Summer Tran, University of Minnesota.

AFPE will accept application proposals for research projects which focus on improving health outcomes in hospitals, health systems, and ambulatory care clinics. Applicants to this award who are not selected will automatically be considered for a Pre-Doctoral Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences. The same eligibility requirements and deadlines apply for both awards.

Stipend: $20,000

The 2022-2023 AFPE-ASHP Fellow is Madeline Brendle, doctoral student at the University of Utah.

Title of Research: “Real world evaluation of the effectiveness, safety, cost of care, and barriers/motivations for adoption of esketamine and ketamine as pharmacotherapies for mental health conditions”

“The goals of my project are focused on evaluating the effectiveness, safety, cost of care, and barriers/motivations for the adoption of esketamine and ketamine as pharmacotherapies for treatment-resistant depression (TRD) and other psychiatric conditions in real-world clinical practice. Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic traditionally used as an anesthetic and analgesic agent. However, at sub anesthetic-doses, ketamine has been observed to have dissociative/hallucinatory effects that have led to rapid and significant improvements in depression and other mental health conditions.^1-4 While racemic ketamine is only prescribed for psychiatric disorders as an off-label indication, esketamine nasal spray (Spravato^TM) was developed as a rapid-acting treatment for TRD and major depressive disorder (MDD) with acute suicidal ideation.^5,6 Both esketamine and ketamine have garnered interest with their novel mechanism of action for depression pharmacotherapy and rapid reduction of depressive symptoms as early as 24 hours post-administration of the medication.^2,4,5

I aim to increase the knowledge base of ketamine and esketamine as treatments for TRD and other mental health conditions in real-world clinical practice. Esketamine and ketamine are fundamentally changing how researchers and clinicians study and treat psychiatric disorders. By conducting this important work, researchers, clinicians, and patients can better understand the long-term and real-world benefits, risks, affordability, and accessibility of esketamine and ketamine treatment for mental health conditions.”

Past Recipients

2020-2021 – Summer Tran, University of Minnesota.