Stanley Center for the Innovative Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE 
ON BIPOLAR DISORDER



Introduction

Proceedings

Bipolar Conferences Home

Biographical Sketches of Course Directors and Presenting Faculty (A - L)

HAGOP S. AKISKAL, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Director, International Mood Center
University of California at San Diego
San Diego, California

Prior to his present post, Dr. Akiskal served as Senior Science Advisor to the Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (1990-94). Earlier he was at the University of Tennessee, Memphis, where he established Mood Clinics which have had worldwide appeal because of their philosophy of conducting clinical training and research while delivering high quality care. Dr. Akiskal’s studies examine the relationship of subclinical temperament traits and various affective disorders, with special focus on the soft bipolar spectrum. He has contributed over 300 papers to the scientific literature and authored or edited ten books, the latest of which is Dysthymia and the Spectrum of Chronic Depressions (Guilford Press, 1997). Dr. Akiskal has won numerous national and international awards, including the Gold Medal for "Pioneer Work" from the Society of Biological Psychiatry (1995). He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Affective Disorders.


LORI ALTSHULER, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
Director, UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program
Director of Research, UCLA Women’s Life Center
UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital
UCLA Brain Research Institute
Chief, Bipolar Disorders Clinic
Greater Los Angeles VA Healthcare System
Los Angeles, California

Lori Altshuler, M.D. is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and directs two research programs: the UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program and the Women’s Research Program. The latter program includes research studies of mood disorders related specifically to women. She is conducting several ongoing clinical trials and longitudinal studies (depression during pregnancy, postpartum and menopause; impact of mood stabilizers on reproductive status), including a recent collaborative R01 Award (with Lee Cohen, M.D. at Harvard and Zachary Stowe, M.D. at Emory) to study relapse of depression during pregnancy. Her basic research in the major psychiatric disorders began with her studies of the biological correlates of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder during a two-year fellowship at the Biological Psychiatry Branch of the NIMH, where she used both postmortem and neuroimaging techniques (MRI and PET) to explore the neuroanatomic underpinnings of psychiatric illness (in particular, bipolar disorder). She is currently conducting an activation study using fMRI and PET during different mood states. She also conducts clinical trials involving new treatments for bipolar disorder. She has received research funding from a variety of sources including the National VA Merit Review, NIMH, the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation (through the NAMI Research Institute, Inc.), the Stanley Foundation Research Awards Program and NARSAD.

She is very active in mentoring psychiatry residents and junior faculty. In her first year on faculty she received the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Junior Faculty Distinguished Teaching Award and in 1994 received the UCLA Department of Psychiatry Outstanding Research Mentor Award. She has also been recognized for her research by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (1996 Judith Silver Young Scientist Award) and the National Depressive, Manic-Depressive Association (1997 Gerald L. Klerman Young Investigator Award).


JULES ANGST, M.D.
Professor And Head, Department of Psychiatry
Psychiatrische Universitatsklinik Zurich
Zurich, Switzerland

Jules Angst, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Zurich and Honorary Doctor of the University of Heidelberg. From 1996 to 1998 he was President of the Association of European Psychiatrists.

Dr. Angst graduated in medicine in Zurich in 1952 and from 1969 to 1994 was Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Zurich University and Director of the Research Department at the Psychiatric Hospital of the University (Burgholzli).

His research on mood disorders began with his monograph (1966) which established and validated the distinction between depression and bipolar disorder on the basis of family history, course and personality. The study also showed a familial response/non-response to imipramine. He is known for his long-term follow-up studies on the course of mood and schizo-affective disorders including prophylactic effects of lithium and anti-depressants against recurrence and suicide. He has carried out prospective epidemiolgical cohort studies leading to the concepts of recurrent brief depression and brief hypomania (1 to 3 days duration).

Jules Angst, M.D. organized European conferences on the methodology of drug trials. His own research in this field has shown that antidepressants have an early onset of action and a negligible potential to induce hypomania.


JOHN ASCHER, M.D.
Principal Clinical Research Physician
Neurology and Psychiatry
Therapeutic Development Group
Glaxo Wellcome Inc.
Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

John Ascher, MD is Principal Clinical Research Physician in the Neurology and Psychiatry Therapeutic Development Group at Glaxo Wellcome in Research Triangle Park, NC. He also has appointments as Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Consulting Associate in the Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical School. Dr. Ascher received his medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine where he also completed his psychiatry residency. He has completed post-graduate fellowships in Neuropharmacology as well as Clinical Research and Drug Development. Dr. Ascher has conducted basic research in the area of the hormonal determinants of maternal behavior and has overseen clinical trials in unipolar depression, bipolar disorder, cocaine dependence, smoking cessation and ADHD. He has published articles on the uses of bupropion and lamotrigine for depression and is a member of the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association.


SUSAN E. BACHUS, Ph.D.
NARSAD Fellow
Clinical Brain Disorders Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
National Institutes of Health
Bethesda, Maryland

Dr. Bachus is currently a Research Fellow in the Clinical Brain Disorders Branch of the National Institute of Mental Health, supported by the National Alliance for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD). She received her Ph.D. in psychobiology from the University of Michigan. She has published research into and reviews on the neuropathology of affective disorders and suicide, and she wrote "Neuropathology of Suicide: A Review and an Approach" for the Annal on Neurobiology of Suicide published by the New York Academy of Sciences in 1997. She has received funding from the Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke for postmortem studies of psychiatric disorders, studies of animal models of tardive dyskinesia, and studies of the neural substrates altered by chronic exposure to neuroleptic and stimulant drugs. She has also taught physiological psychology and psychopharmacology to undergraduate and graduate students at Hood College, and served as a guest lecturer in psychiatry and neuroscience at Suburban Hospital and Georgetown University.


ROSS J. BALDESSARINI, M.D., D.Sc.
Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts

Dr. Baldessarini was born in western Massachusetts in 1937 and graduated from Williams College with highest honors in chemistry in 1959. He completed his medical education at Johns Hopkins University in 1963, where he began training in neuroscience with Professor Vernon Mountcastle in neurophysiology, as well as spending a year at the National Institutes of Health with Drs. Seymour Kety, Julius Axelrod , and Irwin Kopin in neuropharmacology. After graduation, he completed his training in biochemical neuropharmacology in 1964-66. In 1966 he returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital for training in psychiatry with Professor Joel Elkes, and was Chief Resident Psychiatrist of the Henry Phipps Psychiatric Clinic there in 1968-69.

He moved to Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 1969 to help Professor Seymour Kety establish the Laboratories for Psychiatric Research (LPR), which he has directed since Dr. Kety’s retirement in 1983. In 1988, Professor Baldessarini was named permanent Director of the LPR as well as a new Bipolar & Psychotic Disorders Program, which he founded and, in 1989, also became Co-Director of Psychopharmacology and Psychopharmacology Training at the McLean Psychiatric Division of MGH, and has directed that Program since 1996. He founded the International Consortium for Bipolar Disorder Research in 1995 with colleagues from the U.S., Canada and Europe. He is Professor of Psychiatry and in Neuroscience at Harvard Medical School and Senior Consulting Psychiatrist at the McLean and Massachusetts General Hospitals in Boston.

Dr. Baldessarini is an internationally known neuroscientist and research psychopharmacologist who has made many contributions related to the basic scientific understanding of central monoaminergic systems, their involvement in the pathophysiology of neuropsychiatric disorders, and the interactions of antipsychotic and mood-altering agents with them. His recent interests have been directed particularly toward central dopaminergic systems of the brain and their relevance to the actions, side effects, development, and clinical application of antipsychotic agents. He is a Career Investigator of the NIMH and the author of over 1,000 publications, including the chapters on psychopharmacology in Goodman & Gilman’s standard American textbook of pharmacology, as well as his own monograph, Chemotherapy in Psychiatry: Principles and Practice (Harvard University Press), and serves on the editorial boards of several leading neuroscience and psychiatric journals. Among his recognitions was election to the Scholars of Johns Hopkins University.

He has been very active in the education of a generation of medical trainees and psychiatrists in psychopharmacology and other biological aspects of psychiatry, as well as training a large number of basic and clinical researchers. He is widely regarded as having an unusually broad and critical perspective on the integration of basic research in neuroscience and pharmacology with problems in clinical research and contemporary psychiatric practice.


MARK S. BAUER, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
Brown University School of Medicine
Chief, Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences Services
Providence Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Providence, Rhode Island

Mark Bauer, M.D. is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at Brown University and Chief of the Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences Service at the Providence (RI) Veterans Affairs Medical Center. He has received federal, foundation, and industry grant support for research in bipolar disorder, and has been recognized with several research awards for this work. He is proud to serve on the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association and to have been twice named Exemplary Psychiatrist by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.


STEVE CARTER, Ph.D.
Research Consultant
National Institute of Mental Health Treatment Studies at
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and
University of Colorado
Boulder, Colorado

Steve Carter, Ph.D. is a clinical psychologist and research consultant to National Institute of Mental Health Treatment studies at both the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the University of Colorado. He is a member of the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program treatment team that developed Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy (IP/SRT). Dr. Carter also maintains a private practice in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He graduated magna cum laude from Pacific Lutheran University in 1973 with a degree in psychology and received his M.A. (1976) and Ph.D. (1988) in psychology from Duquesne University.

Dr. Carter was trained in Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) at Yale University from 1982-1984 by Drs. Myrna Weissman, Gerald Klerman, Bruce Rounsaville and Eve Chevron and has been practicing IPT in both clinical and research settings for over 15 years. An experienced IPT trainer and supervisor, Dr. Carter has been responsible for the training of IPT and IP/SRT with research clinicians in a variety of settings including the highly respected research group of David Miklowitz, Ph.D.

Dr. Carter has participated in all the clinical trials of IPT and IP/SRT that have been conducted in the Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program and brings to this seminar a wealth of experience with this treatment in both research settings and private practice where he specializes in mood disorders.


GIOVANNI B. CASSANO, M.D., F.R.C.PSYCH
Professor of Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology, & Biotechnology
University of Pisa
Pisa, Italy

Giovanni B. Cassano, M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry at the Department of Psychiatry, Neurobiology, Pharmacology, and Biotechnology of University of Pisa, Italy. He is fellow of The Royal College of Psychiatrists, member of the American Psychopathological Association and of Geselleschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater. He was founder of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and of The International Committee for Prevention and Treatment of Depression. He is foreign corresponding member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

His scientific background moves from basic psychopharmacology broadening to clinical pyschopharmacology, with special regard to the methodological aspects in conducting and documenting clinical trials with psychoactive drugs.

He conducted and coordinated a large number of clinical studies testing the efficacy and safety of antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotic and mood stabilizers.

He is dedicated to research in different areas of psychopathology, especially focusing on the problems of diagnosis, classification and treatment of mood disorders and anxiety disorders. Since 1996, he has been coordinating an international collaborative project, involving researchers from Pisa, Pittsburgh, and Washington, aimed at developing and validating a new approach to classification of subthreshold and atypical manifestations of mood and anxiety disorders.

Professor Cassano is author of over 500 scientific publications, most of which concern issues related to nosology, diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders.


PAULA J. CLAYTON, M.D.
Professor and Head, Department of Psychiatry
University of Minnesota Medical School
Minneapolis, Minnesota

Dr. Paula Clayton attended the University of Michigan where she received a Bachelor of Science degree in 1956. She graduated AOA from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri in 1960. After an internship, she took her psychiatry residency at Washington University. She became an instructor and chief resident in 1965/66. Thereafter, she joined the faculty and progressed from an assistant professor to associate to full professor in 1976. In July of 1981 she moved to Minnesota to become Professor and Head of the Department of Psychiatry. In 1969 she published, with Drs. Winokur and Reich, the first textbook on mania, entitled Manic Depressive Illness. She has published three additional books, 150 papers in refereed journals, and 20 book chapters. Her areas of expertise and research are mood disorders, particularly bipolar and unipolar disorders, and bereavement. She continues to write in these areas.

She is a Fellow in the American Psychiatric Association and a member of the American Psychopathological Association, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and the Society of Biological Psychiatry. She was on the DSM-III Task Force for Nomenclature and Statistics. She has been the President of the American Psychopathological Association, Psychiatric Research Society, and Society of Biological Psychiatry. She is on editorial boards, has been a panel member for AAMC, for the Institute of Medicine, and for the VA Medical Centers. She was a member of the National Board of Medical Examiners Psychiatry Test Committee and a member of the FDA. In 1985, she received the Athena Award from the University of Michigan for being the outstanding woman alumna of the year. She also received a Distinguished Alumnae Award in 1985 from Washington University and in 1993 the First Aphrodite Jannopaulo Hofsommer Award from Washington University.


DANIEL P. COLE, M.D.
Fellow, Stanley Center for the Innovative Treatment of Bipolar Disorder
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Daniel P. Cole M.D. is a Fellow at the Stanley Center for the Innovative Treatment of Bipolar Disorder at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. He is an active clinical investigator, whose research focuses on the treatment of mood disorders. He is also a board certified psychiatrist in general and adult psychiatry.


DEBRA FRANKEL, L.S.W.
Therapist, Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program
Senior Social Worker
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

As a psychotherapist, Debra Frankel has participated in clinical trials involving both interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) and interpersonal and social rhythm therapy (IPSRT) for 14 years. She also serves as a training supervisor for research clinicians utilizing these techniques. She has a particular interest in family dynamics and therapy, and played a key role in helping to develop the model for the Family Psychoeducational Workshop currently being used in the Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Clinic.


ELLEN FRANK, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Director, Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Ellen Frank is Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of the Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She graduated from Vassar College in 1966 and received a masters’ degree in English from Carnegie Mellon University in 1967. Her doctoral work in psychology was done at the University of Pittsburgh and completed in 1979.

Under a MERIT Award grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, Dr. Frank is currently studying the efficacy of Interpersonal and Social Rhythm Therapy, an adjunctive psychotherapy she and her colleagues developed for the treatment of manic-depressive illness. This treatment focuses on helping patients to increase the regularity of their daily routines and decrease the amount of stress they experience in their day-to-day relations with others.

She is also conducting a major NIMH-sponsored study of women with recurrent depression in which she hopes to sort out how biology, life stress, and different "doses" of psychotherapy interact in increasing or decreasing vulnerability to new episodes of depression.

Other projects in which Dr. Frank is currently involved include a Hartford Foundation study of the treatment of minor depression and dysthymia among the elderly in primary care and a project sponsored by Pfizer Italia aimed at achieving a better understanding of the clinical importance of subsyndromal mood, anxiety and eating disorders.

An expert in mood disorders and their treatment, Dr. Frank was a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Task Force on DSM-IV and was Chair of the Food and Drug Administration Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Panel. Dr. Frank is currently a member of the National Advisory Mental Health Council and the National Institute of Health Panel on Scientific Boundaries for Review. Dr. Frank also serves as a member of the MacArthur Foundation Research Network on Psychopathology and Development, Co-Chair of the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Board on Neuroscience and Behavioral Health and is Co-Chair of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s Ethics Committee.

Dr. Frank is an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.


JAN FAWCETT, M.D.
Stanley G. Harris, Sr., Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry
Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center
Grainger Director, Rush Institute for Mental Well-Being
Chicago, Illinois

Jan Fawcett, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center is a graduate of Yale University School of Medicine. He received his psychiatric training at Langley Porter Neuropsychiatric Institute and at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Dr. Fawcett’s career in research began at the Clinical Center of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Maryland where he became involved with research concerning the biomedical aspects of depression and suicide. He came to Chicago in 1966 to establish a Depression Research Unit at the Illinois State Psychiatric Institute to study the pharmacology and biochemistry of depression as well as the prediction and prevention of suicide.

Dr. Fawcett became the Stanley G. Harris, Sr., Professor of Psychiatry at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center in 1972. In June, 1992 Dr. Fawcett was appointed the Grainger Director of the Rush Institute for Mental Well-Being at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center . He has continued his research in the area of depression as a principal investigator of the NIMH Psychobiology of Depression Collaborative Study, a twenty year study of the diagnosis and outcome of depressive illness. In addition, he is pursuing studies in the areas of depression, suicide and alcoholism. A frequent contributor to scientific journals, Dr. Fawcett is also active in professional organizations such as the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (NDMDA), National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD), and the Psychiatric Research Society. In 1989, he was the recipient of the Dr. Jan Fawcett Humanitarian Award from the NDMDA, named in his honor; received the Dublin Research Award from the American Association of Suicidology in 1991; and received the 1993 American Suicide Foundation Research Award. He is presently the Editor of Psychiatric Annals, Past-President of the Psychiatric Research Society (1993-1994) and Past-President of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (1991-1994).


SAMUEL GERSHON, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Director, Pittsburgh Adolescent Alcohol Research Center
Chairman, Institutional Review Board
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Samuel Gershon joined the faculty at the University of Pittsurgh in April 1988, as Vice President for Research at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research in the Health Sciences, and Associate Research Director for the Neurosciences in the Department of Psychiatry. He stepped down from this position in 1995 and assumed the position of Chairman of the University of Pittsburgh, Institutional Review Board. Prior to his tenure with the University of Pittsburgh, Dr. Gershon held the positions of Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at Wayne State University and was also the Director of the Lafayette Clinic. Dr. Gershon’s career as a psychiatrist and investigator spans more than 35 years. During this time he has published more than 600 writings and has won several presitious awards including, among others, the Pfizer Scholarship for Medical Research Overseas and the American Psychiatric Association’s Rush Gold Medal Award. His area of specific interest and work encompasses psychopharmacological interest in various psychiatric areas.


HOWARD H. GOLDMAN, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Mental Health Policy Studies
Co-Director, Center for Mental Health Services Research
University of Maryland School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland

Howard H. Goldman, M.D., Ph. D., is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where he is the Director of Mental Health Policy Studies and the Co-Director of the Center for Mental Health Services Research. Dr. Goldman received a joint M.D.-M.P.H. degree from Harvard University in 1974 and a Ph.D. in social policy research from the Heller School at Brandeis University in 1978, while completing a residency in public psychiatry in a unique NIMH training program.

Dr. Goldman served as Assistant Institute Director at NIMH from 1983-1985. Over the past twenty years he has worked on three "national plans" for services and research produced by the NIMH. A great deal of his time is spent in editorial roles: Currently, Dr. Goldman serves on the editorial boards of Psychiatric Services, the Journal of Mental Health Policy and Economics, and the Journal of Behavioral Health Services and Research. He served previously on the editorial board of the American Journal of Psychiatry, Health Affairs and Evaluation Review. Dr. Goldman also edits a textbook, Review of General Psychiatry, published by Appleton and Lange, now entering its 5th edition.

Dr. Goldman has received awards in mental health services research from the American Public Health Association, the American Psychiatric Association, and the Cecil Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has given the Emily Mumford medal lecture at Columbia University and the Lundbeck lecture in Sweden. He consults to public and private organizations on mental health care in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Sweden.

Currently, he is serving as the Senior Scientific Editor of the Surgeon General’s Report on Mental Health, due to be published late in 1999.


ROBERT M.A. HIRSCHFELD, M.D.
Titus Harris Distinguished Professor and Chair
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
University of Texas Medical Branch
Galveston, Texas

Dr. Robert Hirschfeld is the Titus H. Harris Distinguished Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston. Dr. Hirschfeld is known internationally for his research on the diagnosis and treatment of depression and anxiety. He has made major contributions to our understanding of the classification of depression, its clinical course, its relationship to personality and personality disorders, and its treatment with medication and psychotherapy.

One of the nation’s leading advocates for the mentally ill, Dr. Hirschfeld spent six years as Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association. During that time, he played a key role in transforming the organization into America’s most powerful voice for people suffering from depression.

Dr. Hirschfeld has authored over 300 scientific papers and abstracts in leading scientific and medical journals, and has contributed chapters on mood and anxiety disorders in four major psychiatric textbooks, as well as in nearly two dozen other books on psychiatry. He served as Chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Workgroup to Develop Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Patients with Bipolar Disorders.

A native of Detroit, Dr. Hirschfeld received his Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1964, and his medical degree from the University of Michigan in 1968. He received a M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University in 1972 and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Stanford University Medical Center in the same year. He was certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology in 1975. He subsequently spent 18 years at the National Institute of Mental Health, where he was Chief of the Mood, Anxiety and Personality Disorders Research Branch, and was the Clinical Director of NIMH’s Depression/Awareness, Recognition, and Treatment (D/ART) Program.

Dr. Hirschfeld is the recipient of numerous honors, including the Distinguished Achievement Award from the University of Michigan, the Jan Fawcett Humanitarian Award from the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association, the Gerald L. Klerman Award for Panic Disorder from the World Psychiatric Association, and the Administrator’s Award for Meritorious Achievement as well as the Outstanding Service Medal from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse and Mental Health Administration. He is listed in the book, The Best Doctors in America, a directory of the top one percent of physicians in the United States as rated by their peers, and was described by Good Housekeeping Magazine as one of the nation’s Best Mental Health Experts. Dr. Hirschfeld serves on the Board of Directors of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America and of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, of which he has also served as President. He also is a member of the Scientific Board of the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression.


KAY REDFIELD JAMISON, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Baltimore, Maryland

Kay Redfield Jamison is Professor of Psychiatry at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is the coauthor of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness, which was chosen in 1990 as the Most Outstanding Book in Biomedical Sciences by the American Association of Publishers, and author of Touched with Fire: Manic-Depressive Illness and the Artistic Temperament. She is the author or co-author of four books and approximately 100 scientific publications about mood disorders, suicide, psychotherapy, and lithium.

Dr. Jamison did her undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles where she was a National Science Foundation Research Fellow, University of California Cook Scholar, John F. Kennedy Scholar, United States Public Health Service Pre-doctoral Research Fellow, and UCLA Graduate Woman of the Year. She also studied zoology and neurophysiology at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland.

Dr. Jamison, formerly the director of the UCLA Affective Disorders Clinic, was selected as UCLA Woman of Science and is listed in Best Doctors in the United States. She is recipient of the American Suicide Foundation Research Award, the UCLA Distinguished Alumnus Award, the Fawcett Humanitarian Award from the National Depressive and Mani-Depressive Association, the Steven V. Logan Award for Research into Brain Disorders from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the William Styron Award from the National Mental Health Association, and the McGovern Award for excellence in medical communication. She was selected as one of five individuals for the public television series "Great Minds of Medicine", and chosen by Time magazine as a "Hero of Medicine".

Dr. Jamison was a member of the first National Advisory Council for Human Genome Research, and is currently the clinical director for the Dana Consortium on the Genetic Basis of Manic-Depressive Illness, as well as the Chair of the Genome Action Coalition, a coalition of more than 125 patient groups and pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. She also serves on the National Committee for Basic Sciences at UCLA, and is the executive producer and writer for a series of award-winning public television specials about manic-depressive illness and the arts.

Dr. Jamison is Honorary Professor of English at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. Her most recent book, An Unquiet Mind, received an 1995-96 Critics’ Choice Award and was selected by The Boston Globe, Entertainment Weekly, and the Seattle Post Intelligencer as one of the best books of 1995. An Unquiet Mind, currently under development as a feature film, was on The New York Times Bestseller List for more than five months.


GABOR I. KEITNER, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Brown University School of Medicine
Associate Psychiatrist-in-Chief
Director
Adult Psychiatry, Inpatient Division
Mood Disorders Program
Rhode Island Hospital
Providence, Rhode Island

Dr. Keitner is Associate Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Director of Adult Psychiatry and the Mood Disorders Program at Rhode Island Hospital. He is Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry, Brown University School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatric residency at McMaster University in Canada where he received specialized training in psychopharmacology and family therapy. He worked at Butler Hospital in Providence, Rhode Island from 1980 to 1996 as Director of the Mood Disorders Program and Medical Director for Inpatient Services.

Dr. Keitner’s major research interests are:

  • Psychosocial factors and treatments affecting the course and outcome of major depression and bipolar disorders.
  • Evaluating the effectiveness and indications for combining psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and family therapy in the treatment of mood disorders.
  • Psychopharmacological treatment trials.
  • The assessment of family functioning and its relationship to the course and outcome of psychiatric disorders.

Dr. Keitner has published extensively in peer reviewed journals. He is a frequent speaker at national and international conferences. He has received external funding for research from NIMH and industry. He is a clinical supervisor for inpatient and outpatient treatment and also supervises residents in pyschotherapy and family therapy. In addition to his research and teaching, Dr. Keitner directs the Inpatient Program at Rhode Island Hospital specializing in the treatment of severe mood disorders.


KELLY J. KELLEHER, M.D., M.P.H.
Staunton Professor of Pediatrics
Psychiatry and Health Services Administration
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr. Kelleher is the Staunton Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Health Services Administration at the University of Pittsburgh. He is Director of the Mental Healthcare Policy and Research Consortium and a member of the Steering Committee of the Center for Research on Health Care, a multi-university consortium of health services researchers.

Dr. Kelleher is also Principal Investigator on a variety of federally funded grants examining the role of managed care organizations in providing pharmacy and behavioral health services to public and private sector patients. He has published numerous articles and chapters as well as conducted more than forty presentations on managed care and the evolving standards for clinician groups. Dr. Kelleher is principal investigator of one site in a national study of treatment and prevention services in managed care organizations. His other work examines the contracts and organizations of behavioral managed care organizations as these relate to the cost and outcomes of care. In addition, he is participating in the development of satisfaction surveys for national use in behavioral health care organizations.


ATHANASIO KOUKOPOULOS, M.D.
Director, Centro Lucio Bini
Chief, Medical Staff
Clinica Belvedere Montello
Rome, Italy

Director of the Centro Lucio Bini, a center for the treatment and the study of psychiatric conditions and especially of affective disorders, that he and other colleagues founded in 1976 and Chief of the Medical Staff of the Clinica Belvedere Montello, a psychiatric in-patient private facility, in Rome that he established with other colleagues in 1963.

His main activity is the examination and treatment of psychiatric patients with a particular interest in Affective Disorders. In addition to his clinical activity, he has been performing clinical research into the course of Manic-Depressive Illness and the pattern of the manic-depressive cycle.

He is also conducting studies on manic-depressive temperament and its importance in the genesis of affective disorders and their course.

Related to the above issues have been other lines of research, like the response to prophylactic lithium treatment and the increase of bipolarity and frequency of reccurences following antidepressant drug treatments. The temperament, the previous course, and the concomitant factors of rapid cyclicity, have been an important part of his work for more than twenty years.


DAVID J. KUPFER, M.D.
Thomas Detre Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry
Professor of Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

David J. Kupfer, M.D., Thomas Detre Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, received his bachelor (magna cum laude) and M.D. degrees from Yale University. Following completion of an internship, Dr. Kupfer continued his postgraduate clinical and research training at the Yale New Haven Hospital and at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). In 1969, he was appointed an assistant professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr. Kupfer joined the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh in 1973 as an associate professor of psychiatry and director of research and research training at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. He was promoted to professor of psychiatry in 1975 and became chairman of the department in 1983. In 1994 he was named the Thomas Detre Chair in Psychiatry. For more than twenty years, Dr. Kupfer's research has focused primarily on the conceptualization, diagnosis, and treatment of mood disorders. He has written more than 600 articles, books, and book chapters that examine the use of medication in recurrent depression, the causes of depression, and the relationship between biological rhythms, sleep and depression. In recognition of his contributions to the field, Dr. Kupfer has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the A.E. Bennett Research Award in Clinical Science (1975), the Anna-Monika Foundation Prize (1977), the Daniel H. Efron Award (1979), the Twenty-Sixth Annual Award of the Institute of Pennsylvania Hospital in Memory of Edward A. Strecker, M.D. (1989), the William R. McAlpin, Jr. Research Achievement Award (1990), the 1993 American Psychiatric Association Award for Research in Psychiatry, the First Isaac Ray Decade of Excellence Award (1994), the Twelfth Annual Edward J. Sachar Award (1996), the 1996 Gerald Klerman Lifetime Research Award (jointly with Dr. Ellen Frank), and the Institute of Medicine’s 1998 Rhoda and Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences in 1990.


FOUZIA LAGHRISSI-THODE, M.D.
Senior Clinical Research Physician
International Clinical Research
Nervous System Department
Novartis Pharma
Basel, Switzerland

Since 1997, Fouzia Laghrissi-Thode, M.D. has held a position as Senior Clinical Research Physician at the International Clinical Research Nervous System Department of Novartis Pharma in Basel, Switzerland. She graduated in Medicine from the University of Tours, France in 1986. After residencies in General and Internal Medicine, she specialized in Psychiatry and received her European certification in 1992 at the University of Limoges, France. Since 1992, Fouzia Laghrissi-Thode has held an appointment as an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA. As a Principal Investigator, she has conducted a number of studies in depressed elderly and medically ill patients, and actively participated as co-investigator in the research conducted by the NIMH Clinical Research Centers for the Study of Affective Disorders and Late Life Mood Disorders.


PETER M. LEWINSOHN, Ph.D.
Senior Research Scientist
Oregon Research Institute
Professor Emeritus of Psychology
University of Oregon
Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry
Oregon Health Sciences University
Portland, Oregon

Dr. Lewinsohn is a Senior Research Scientist at Oregon Research Institute. He has conducted research on the antecedents and consequences of depression, and has developed the highly regarded "Coping With Depression Course," a cognitive-behavioral treatment for both adolescents and adults. He has published articles on adolescent psychopathology, risk factors and predictors of suicide, the role of substance use and abuse on the many facets of depression and role functioning, and gender differences in rates and course of depression.

His current research has two main foci:

a) Identification of adolescents and young adults who are at elevated risk for depression and bipolar disorders;

b) Effects of parental depression on infant development.

Dr. Lewinsohn is currently funded on the following grants: The Natural History of Depression in Adolescents; Family Study of Adolescent Psychopathology; Psychiatric Disorders and the Natural History of Smoking; and Parental Depression and Infant Development. He has served on the Clinical Projects Review Committee, and the Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Review Committee. In addition, Dr. Lewinsohn is a member of Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy, Society for Research on Psychopathology, Society for Research in Child and Adolescent Psychopathology, and the American Psychological Association. He is the recipient of several professional awards, including: the Mental Health Association of Oregon (1978), the Joseph Zubin Award, Society for Research in Psychopathology (1991), the Roddy D. Bricknell Award, Columbia University (1994), the Nathan Cummings Foundation Award, and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (1996).

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