Talia Puzantian, PharmD, BCPP
Areas of Expertise
Pharmacists and Mental Health Stigma, Psychopharmacology, Student Wellbeing, Substance Use Disorders
Dr. Puzantian, who joined KGI in January 2016, is Professor of Clinical Sciences at Keck Graduate Institute School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. Prior to joining KGI, she was a clinical psychopharmacology consultant in private practice. Previously, Dr. Puzantian was a psychiatric clinical pharmacy specialist and an Associate Clinical Professor at San Francisco General Hospital and at the University of California, San Francisco. She received a BS in Psychobiology from UCLA and a PharmD from the UCSF School of Pharmacy. She completed a psychiatric pharmacy practice residency at LA County/USC where she was honored as Pharmacy Resident of the Year. Over the course of her career, Dr. Puzantian has been recognized with several teaching, research, and clinical precepting awards.
Dr. Puzantian was in the first group of specialists to become a Board Certified Psychiatric Pharmacist and has, in the past, served as the Chair of the Specialty Council on Psychiatric Pharmacy for the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties. She is an active member of the American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists (AAPP) and advisor to the KGI student chapter of AAPP. She currently serves on the California Department of Health Care Services Global Medi-Cal Drug Use Review Advisory Board. Dr. Puzantian’s scholarly interests focus on pharmacists’ roles in mitigating the opioid crisis, suicide prevention and mental wellness in university students, and equipping pharmacists with Mental Health First Aid training. She is Program Director for the KGI Naloxone Distribution Program and Principal Investigator/Program Director for the SAMHSA-funded Mental Health Awareness Training for Pharmacists (MHAT-Rx) initiative. She currently practices as a psychiatric pharmacy specialist at Adventist Health Glendale. Dr. Puzantian also serves as Deputy Editor for the Carlat Psychiatry, Child Psychiatry, Addiction Treatment, Hospital Psychiatry, and Geriatric Psychiatry Reports and is co-author of several books including Medication Fact Book for Psychiatric Practice and Child Medication Fact Book for Psychiatric Practice.
Capurso N, Puzantian T, Carlat D. Treating Opioid Use Disorder: A Fact Book. Newburyport, MA: Carlat Publishing; 2024. ISBN: 979-8-9893264-0-2.
Puzantian T, Carlat D. Medication Fact Book For Psychiatric Practice, 7th ed. Newburyport, MA: Carlat Publishing; 204. ISBN: 979-8-9873354-8-2.
Carlat DJ, Weaver M, Puzantian T. Treating Alcohol Use Disorder: A Fact Book. Newburyport, MA: Carlat Publishing; 2023. ISBN: 979-8-9873354-2-0.
Feder JD, Tien EC, Puzantian T. Child Medication Fact Book for Psychiatry, 2nd edition. Newburyport, MA: Carlat Publishing; 2023. ISBN 979-8-9873354-1-3.
Hill LG, Loera LJ, Torrez SB, Puzantian T, Evoy KE, Ventricelli DJ, Eukel HN, Peckham AM, Chen C, Ganetsky VS, Yeung MS, Zagorski CM, Reveles KR. Availability of buprenorphine/naloxone films and naloxone nasal spray in community pharmacies in 11 U.S. states. Drug Alcohol Depend. 2022 Aug 1;237:109518.
Gasper J, Puzantian T. Pharmacist Toolkit: Methamphetamine Use Disorder. Lincoln, NE: American Association of Psychiatric Pharmacists, 2022.
Bock PE, Pham V, Puzantian T. Pharmacy Students’ Perceptions of the effectiveness of a film-based mental health elective course. Curr Pharm Teach Learn. 2022 Jan;14(1):38-45.
Puzantian T, Gasper JJ, Ramirez CM, Pharmacist furnishing of naloxone in California: A follow-up analysis, Journal of the American Pharmacists Association. 2021. 2021 Sep-Oct;61(5):e108-e112.
Puzantian T, Gasper JJ. Provision of naloxone without a prescription by California pharmacists 2 years after legislation implementation. JAMA 2018; 320(18):1933-1934.
Puzantian T, Gasper JG. Opioid Safety: Focus on Furnishing Naloxone. A Guide for California Community Pharmacists. Claremont, CA. June 2018.
CPNP Substance Abuse Task Force. OPIOID USE DISORDERS: Interventions for Community Pharmacists 2016; http://cpnp.org/guideline/opioid (guideline).
Puzantian T. Chapter 28 – Pharmaceutical Care Competencies: Psychiatric Patients. Murdaugh, LB (ed). In Competence Assessment Tools for Health-System Pharmacies, 5th edition; 2015. ISBN: 978-1-58528-402-3
CPNP Substance Abuse Task Force. NALOXONE ACCESS: A Practical Guideline for Pharmacists 2015; http://cpnp.org/guideline/naloxone (guideline).
Puzantian T. “Anxiety Disorders” Chapter 52 in Helms RA and Quan DJ (eds) Textbook of Therapeutics: Drug and Disease Management, 8th edition; 2006. ISBN: 0-7817-5734-7
Tsai C, Puzantian T. Liquid risperidone in the treatment of psychotic agitation. CNS Drugs 2002;16(11):777.778.
Puzantian T. Central nervous system adverse effects with efavirenz: case report and review. Pharmacotherapy 2002;22(7):930-933.
Pham JV, Puzantian T. Ecstasy: dangers and controversies. Pharmacotherapy 2001;21(12):1561-1565.
Augustin SG, Puzantian T, Caley CF, Marken PA, Richards AL, Levin GM. Psychiatric Pharmacists. American Journal of Psychiatry 2001;158(12):2090. (letter)
Puentes E, Puzantian T, Lum BL. Prediction of valproate serum concentrations in adult psychiatric patients using Bayesian model estimations with NPEM2 population pharmacokinetic parameters. Therapeutic Drug Monitoring 1999;21(3):351-354.
Puzantian T, Kawase K. Does the addition of pindolol accelerate or enhance the response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressants? Pharmacotherapy 1999;19(2):205-212.