Two Belmont Pharmacy students recently published a review of the movie, Nerve, in Mental Health Clinician, a monthly publication of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP).   CPNP is a professional society of pharmacists practicing in the psychiatry and neurology specialties.

The two PharmD students, Meg Aldstadt and Kelly Maguigan, under the guidance of Dr. Michael McGuire, Assistant Professor in the College of Pharmacy, provided a review of how social anxiety disorder and medications used to treat it were depicted in the movie, an indie favorite where a young man battles the disorder with the help of a psychology student.

In the review, Aldstadt and Maguigan conclude that while Nerve provides an excellent portrayal of social anxiety disorder, it falls short in depicting relevant treatment options   They write: “Anxiety disorders respond to cognitive strategies and pharmacotherapy, but Nerve does not present any current, accepted treatment options. Instead, Aurora (the psychology student character) hurries Josh (the main character) through some experiments with her thesis deadline as the goal. It is not reasonable to expect an individual to improve in such a short period of time. We believe that she actually harms Josh more than she helps him. While the movie’s representation of treatment options fails, it does demonstrate the complexity of Josh’s disorder. It realistically shows the impact of inappropriate treatment, as opposed to giving the viewer a cinematic ending where he improves regardless of the quality of therapy.”