AAPP Foundation shares the same goal as its parent association, the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP), to ensure psychiatric pharmacists are a core member of the care team contributing to improved patient care outcomes for those living with mental illness.
Specifically, the Foundation desires to support the standardization of and improvements in clinical research that supports the importance of the integration of psychiatric pharmacists into mental health care teams.
2026 Retrospective Research Grants
To support quality retrospective research, the AAPP Outcomes Research Committee has developed three study designs that attempt to isolate the impact of Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacists (BCPPs) on patient-level outcomes. AAPP and the AAPP Foundation are providing $15,000 grants to support research time and to encourage implementation of studies answering research questions of particular importance to the association. The 2026 studies are:
- BCPP Impact on Medication Therapy Problems and Cost Avoidance in the Treatment of Bipolar Disorder
- Evaluation of Outcomes after Outpatient Clozapine Initiation by Board-Certified Psychiatric Pharmacists (BCPP) Versus Non-BCPP Providers: A Retrospective Cohort Study
- BCPP Pharmacist Management of Opioid Use Disorder (OUD) Following Acute Inpatient or Emergency Department Encounters Versus Usual Care
Annual Meeting Research Awards
Research and Practice Awards are sponsored by the AAPP Foundation and awarded at each AAPP Annual Meeting held generally in April. The awards recognize high quality research and presentation in the categories of students, residents, pharmacist research, and pharmacist innovation practice. Applicants engage in a competitive application process and finalists in each category present their projects during platform presentations. The AAPP Foundation is proud to support research that expands the body of knowledge of psychiatric pharmacy.
In progress projects include:
In 2024, the Foundation awarded $247,352 to the project, "Psychiatric pharmacist management of cardiometabolic risk for adults with serious mental illness in outpatient safety-net mental health clinics in San Francisco." The primary investigator and co-investigators are Esti Iturralde, PhD, Anne Rosenthal, MD, and Hannah Van Ochten, PharmD of Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research.
In 2025, the Foundation awarded $249,786 to the project, “Alternate Prescriber Type - Depression Management (Trial APT-DM): Impact of Psychiatric Pharmacist on Major Depressive Disorder in Primary Care” The co-principal investigators are Dr. Nathaniel Rickles (UConn School of Pharmacy), Dr. Wilner Samson (Hartford Healthcare), and Dr. Charles Caley (Western New England University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences).