Ericka L. Breden, PharmD, BCPP, CGP, FASCP
Ericka L. Breden, PharmD, BCPP, CGP, FASCP, is a clinical pharmacy specialist in psychiatry and clinical assistant professor with both the Departments of Pharmacy and Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University Health System in Richmond, VA. She also is the Director of a PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency program. Dr. Breden began her career at VCUHS after completion of both a geriatric residency and a psychiatric residency. Her current position entails rounding primarily with the geropsychiatry and the medical psychiatry teams. Her role is to ensure medication safety, educate patients and family members, and educate psychiatrists-in-training on the safe use of medications. She feels the greatest impact she makes in her practice is ensuring patients and families have access to and can afford their medications and helping them to understand the importance of taking their medications.
As a preceptor to pharmacists-in-training and as a Director of a PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency, Dr. Breden often provides mentorship to those interested in pursuing a career in psychiatric pharmacy. She shares with them that although psychiatry is an area of medicine that many pharmacists and practitioners are less familiar, she feels it is one of the most interesting areas. Since there are fewer objective markers in psychiatry, it allows her to think more abstractly and to appreciate the benefits of treatment changes as more global outcomes, such as witnessing a grossly disorganized patient on admission achieve readiness for discharge. She also feels that there is room for growth in this specialty, both within the VA system with young veterans returning with PTSD and also within academia, as more faculty are being recruited due to the growing interest in psychiatric and neurologic research and drug development.
As a CPNP member, Dr. Breden is actively involved in the Residency and New Practitioner committee. She appreciates an organization dedicated to the growing profession of psychiatric pharmacy and the promotion of career development. Psychotropics are some of the highest prescribed medications, and she believes CPNP is an excellent source of education. She finds the listserv useful because it offers a venue for psychiatric pharmacists to consult with one another and compare practices.
