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 (1990-1994). 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), the Anna Monika German Prize for research on
depression, the NARSAD Affective Disorder Prize for his work on the bipolar
spectrum, the Jean Delay Prize of the World Psychiatric Association, as well as
the first Aretaeus Prize (Rome).
JULES ANGST, M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry
The University of Zurich
Epidemologic Research
Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital
Jules Angst, M.D., is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at Zurich University in
Zurich, Switzerland, and Honorary Doctor of Heidelberg University in Heidelberg,
Germany. He was Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Head of the Research
Department of Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital (the Burghölzli) from 1969
to 1994. He has received many awards in recognition of his work, including the
Anna Monika Awards (1967/1969), Paul Martini Prize for Methodology in Medicine
(1969), Otto Naegeli Prize (1983), Eric Strömgren Medal (1987), and the Emil
Kraepelin Medal of the Max Planck Institute, Munich (1992). He has also received
the Selo Prize NARSAD/Depression Research, USA (1994), Mogens Schou Award for
Research in Bipolar Disorder, USA
(2001), the Burghölzli Award for Social
Psychiatry (2001) and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the International
Society of Psychiatric Genetics (2002).
DAVID AXELSON, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Axelson received a B.A. in 1987 from Brown
University and his M.D. in 1992 from the Duke University School of Medicine. He
completed a combined General – Child Psychiatry residency at Western Psychiatric
Institute and Clinic in 1997 and a post-doctoral research fellowship in child
and adolescent mood disorders at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Axelson has
been on the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, in the
Department of Psychiatry since 2000, when he was named the Director of the Child
and Adolescent Bipolar Services (CABS) clinic at Western Psychiatric Institute
and Clinic. Through his work at the CABS clinic, he has the opportunity to take
care of many children and adolescents with bipolar disorder.
Dr. Axelson’s research interests include
pediatric bipolar disorder, metabolism of psychiatric medications in the
pediatric population, the neurobiological basis of mood disorders and medication
treatment of mood disorders in children and adolescents. He has been the
recipient of a Research Career Development Award from the National Institutes of
Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Axelson has completed studies that examine the
metabolism of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in adolescents. He is the
principal investigator at the Pittsburgh sites of a medication treatment trial
of early-onset bipolar disorder and a family-focused psychotherapy study in
bipolar adolescents. He is also involved in several studies examining the
phenomenology of bipolar disorder in youth.
MARK S. BAUER, M.D.
Acting Chief of Staff and
Chief, Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences
Service
Providence VA Medical Center
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Brown University of Medicine
Providence, Rhode Island
Dr. Bauer received his B.A. from the University
of Chicago and his M.D. from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently
Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University and on staff at the
Providence (RI) Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Bauer has served as Principal Investigator on
federal grants each year since residency and has received awards for research,
teaching, administration, and clinical care including twice being named
Exemplary Psychiatrist by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.
Dr. Bauer’s scientific contributions have
included use of high dose thyroid hormone treatment for rapid cycling
manic-depressive disorder, as well as assessment, phenomenology, and course in
manic-depressive disorder. For the last 10 years his focus has been on
developing and testing methods to improve treatment delivery for
manic-depressive disorder, particularly using collaborative practice approaches.
He is the author of two recent books on the
assessment and treatment of major mental illnesses: The Field Guide to
Psychiatric Assessment and Treatment (Philadelphia, Lippincott, 2003) and
Structured Group Psychotherapy for Bipolar Disorder: The Life Goals Program, 2nd
Edition, (New York, Springer, 2003).
MICHAEL BERK, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Professor
University of Melbourne
Victoria, Australia
Professor Michael Berk is currently appointed to
the Chair of Psychiatry for Barwon Health and The Geelong Clinic at The
University of Melbourne.
He has published approximately 90 papers in peer
reviewed journals and presented extensively on a wide range of topics with his
research interests focusing on mood and psychotic disorders, particularly
bipolar disorder. He has published a number of self-initiated randomized
controlled trials in bipolar disorder and has established the Mood and Anxiety
Disorders Unit at Barwon Health. He chairs the University of Melbourne Bipolar
Special Interest Group and the Melbourne Academic Consortium Clinical Research
and Clinical Trials Domain and is the principal investigator on a number of
current trials. He is a member of a number of international advisory boards and
is on the editorial board of four journals.
WADE H. BERRETTINI M.D., Ph.D.
Karl E. Rickels Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Dr. Berrettini is the Karl E. Rickels Chair of
Psychiatry and Director of the Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, at the
University of Pennsylvania. He received an MD from Jefferson Medical College and
a PhD in pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University. Dr. Berrettini performed
his residency in psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior
at Thomas Jefferson University. He has received numerous awards, including the
National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression Established and
Distinguished Investigator Awards; the Selo Prize, National Alliance for
Research on Schizophrenia and Depression; the Louis Lurie Memorial Lecture
Award, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine; and the H. J. Weitbrecht
Scientific Award, University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany. Dr. Berrettini is a member
of numerous professional societies and an editor for major scientific journals
such as Psychiatric Genetics, Molecular Psychiatry, Neuropsycho-pharmacology,
Biological Psychiatry, and the American Journal of Medical Genetics. He has
authored over 150 peer-reviewed papers, and contributed to numerous book
chapters, conference publications, and case reports. Dr. Berrettini is one of
the world's authorities on genetic susceptibility to bipolar disorder. His group
has several projects designed to identify susceptibility genes for common
behavioral disorders, including bipolar disorder, idiopathic epilepsy,
schizophrenia, anorexia nervosa and heroin dependence. In the genetic studies of
bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, a region of chromosome 18 is being
investigated for DNA sequence variations which are associated with increased
risk for illness.
BORIS BIRMAHER, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Boris Birmaher, M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry
with board certifications in both general psychiatry and child psychiatry. He
received his medical degree from Valle University in Cali, Colombia and his
general psychiatry degree from the Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical Center in
Jerusalem, Israel. He received his training in biological psychiatry at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York and training in child psychiatry
at Columbia University, New York Psychiatric Institute in New York.
Dr. Birmaher is the Director of the Child and
Adolescent Anxiety Program and Co-Director of the Child and Adolescent Bipolar
Services at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. He is a well-known
researcher in pharmacological and biological studies of children and adolescents
with mood and anxiety disorders and he has published many articles in this area.
Currently, Dr. Birmaher has several research grants studying the course and
outcome of bipolar youth, the manifestations of bipolar disorder in offspring of
bipolar parents, and the treatment of children and adolescents with bipolar,
major depression and anxiety disorders. In addition Dr. Birmaher is the
recipient of an endowment from the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine
to study the early onset of bipolar disease.
CHARLES L. BOWDEN, M.D.
Karren Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry
The University of Texas Health Science Center at
San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
Dr. Charles Bowden is Chairman of the Department
of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.
Dr. Bowden received his training in Psychiatry at the New York State Psychiatric
Institute and Presbyterian Hospital in New York. He is professor both in the
departments of psychiatry and pharmacology and holds the Nancy U. Karren Chair
of Psychiatry. He is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the National
Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association and in 2001 received the Gerald L.
Klerman Senior Investigator Award of the Association. He is a Fellow of the
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the Collegium Internationale
Neuro-Psychopharmacologicum, and the American College of Psychiatrists,
Corresponding Member of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ECNP),
a member of the editorial boards of Bipolar Disorders, Acta Psychiatrica
Scandinavica, Journal of Bipolar Disorders and Depression and Anxiety. He is
Co-Chairman of the World Federation of Biological Psychiatry Guidelines for
biologic Treatment of Bipolar Depression. He is a reviewer for several journals
including the Archives of General Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry and the
Journal of the American Medical Association. He is author of over 220
publications. His research is principally on the symptomatic and biological
characterization of bipolar disorders, and the efficacy and pharmacodynamics of
mood stabilizing drugs. He has been principal investigator for 64 studies funded
by pharmaceutical companies, NIMH, and foundations. He frequently serves as
consultant to pharmaceutical companies and governmental agencies and is named in
Best Doctors in the U.S. in the area of mood disorders.
CHARLOTTE BROWN, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Charlotte Brown is Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry and Director of the Health and Behavior Studies Program at the
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Arts
degree, cum laude, from Boston University; Master of Science degree from Howard
University; and Ph.D. from The American University in Washington D.C. Dr. Brown
completed her clinical training at McLean Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and
Post-doctoral training at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic.
Dr. Brown’s research and clinical interests
involving the interface of physical health and psychological well-being have led
her to focus on the recognition and treatment of depression in primary care
patients. She is former recipient of a NIMH Scientist Development Award, and is
currently the Principal Investigator of the NIMH-funded study “Improving Primary
Care Services: Personal Illness Models.” This four year project will examine the
impact of patient attitudes and beliefs about the nature of depression on
antidepressant adherence and illness management strategies. Dr. Brown is also a
co-investigator in the recently funded “Commonwealth Center of Excellence for
Bipolar Disorder” (PI: DJ Kupfer).
Other research interests include: psychosocial
factors affecting women’s health; the impact of race and ethnicity on depression
recognition and management; and the influence of anxiety on depression course
and outcomes. Her most recent publications involve research in the primary care
sector and include: the effect of anxiety on depression treatment outcomes,
racial differences in the clinical presentation and treatment outcomes for major
depression, and primary care patients’ personal illness models for depression.
Dr. Brown is also active in community initiated
activities to increase public awareness of depression and available treatments,
particularly in African American communities.
JOSEPH R. CALABRESE, M.D.
Department of Psychiatry
Case Western Reserve University School of
Medicine
Cleveland, Ohio
Dr. Calabrese completed his medical training at
the Ohio State University School of Medicine and his psychiatric residency at
the Cleveland Clinic Foundation. After completing a research fellowship in
Clinical Neuroendocrinology at the National Institute of Mental Health, he
returned to Cleveland in 1989 to start the Mood Disorders Program. Dr. Calabrese
has been chosen by the psychiatric residents to receive the Best Teacher of the
Year Award during three different years. He is currently Professor of Psychiatry
at Case Western Reserve University, the Director of the Mood Disorders Program
University Hospitals of Cleveland, and Co-Director of the Stanley Medical
Research Institute Bipolar Disorders Clinical Research Center. Dr. Calabrese has
over 180 publications that focus on the development of the class of
anticonvulsants as mood stabilizers for use in the treatment of rapid-cycling
bipolar disorder. Dr. Calabrese has received four research grants from the NIMH,
and these have all focused on the development of new treatments for bipolar
disorder with particular emphasis on rapid cycling bipolar disorder. More
recently, and with Robert Findling, MD as co-principal investigator, he has
received a fifth grant from the NIMH (P20) to support the development of a
clinical research center dedicated to the treatment of bipolar disorder across
the life span. This center will focus on improving clinical outcomes in
underserved populations of bipolar disorder, including those receiving care
within community mental health centers, children and adolescents, and adults
currently abusing alcohol and/or drugs.
DONNA J. CAROTHERS
Executive Director
International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD)
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ms. Carothers received her training in business
and communications at Carlow College. She has served as the Executive Director
of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders since its founding in 2000.
Under her direction, the organization has grown from a membership of 100 to a
membership of over 700 representing 28 countries on all 5 continents.
Prior to this position, Ms. Carothers served as
the assistant director of administration at the Hospice and Palliative Nurses
Association (HPNA), a national organization, and their sister organization, the
National Board for Certification of Hospice and Palliative Nurses (NBCHPN).
During her tenure in this position, the organization grew to over 3,000 members
and became the first to provide Board Certification to a member of the
palliative care clinical team.
Ms. Carothers has been the interim director of
the Children’s Health Network, at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. In this
role, she was responsible for providing guidance and direction to academic
faculty, community physicians and hospital administrators to create a
Physician-Hospital Organization with the ability to act as a contractual vehicle
for pediatric managed care services.
Ms. Carothers created the ISBD Global, the
official newsletter of the International Society of Bipolar Disorders and is the
managing editor. She is currently a member of the Pittsburgh Society of
Association Executives and co-chairs the Palliative Care Steering Committee at
Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh. Ms. Carothers also serves as a member of the
Pittsburgh Regional Healthcare Initiative (PRHI) Depression Subcommittee.
Ms. Carothers also serves as a consultant to LEAD
Pittsburgh, a community-based initiative to educate and raise awareness of
depressive disorders.
GIOVANNI B. CASSANO, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Universita Degli Studi di Pisa
Pisa, Italy
Giovanni Battista Cassano is Full Professor of
Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of Pisa, Italy, and since 2001
Director of the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology, Pharmacology and Biology of
the University of Pisa. He is fellow of The Royal College of Psychiatrists,
London, member of the American Psychopathological Association and of
Geselleschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater. He was founder of
ECNP and of the International Committee for Prevention and Treatment of
Depression. He is a foreign corresponding member of The American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology and a member of the Editorial Board of the “Bipolar
Disorders: An International Journal of Psychiatry and Neurosciences”. His
scientific background moves from a basic psychopharmacology broadening to
clinical psychopharmacology, with special regard to the methodological aspects
in conducting and documenting clinical trials with psychoactive drugs. Thanks to
his contribution in this area, he obtained a NIMH grant from 1980 to 1986. He
conducted and coordinated a large number of clinical studies testing the
efficacy and safety of antidepressants, anxiolitics, antipsychotics and mood
stabilizers. He is dedicated to research in different psychopathological and
clinical fields, focusing on the problems of diagnosis, classification and
short-term/long-term treatment especially of mood disorders and anxiety
disorders. In these last years, he led an international
(Pisa-Pittsburgh-Washington) group of clinical researchers working on the study
of subclinical, soft, atypical manifestations of bipolar disorders, anxiety and
eating disorders. Professor Cassano is the author of over 500 scientific
publications. Moreover he is co-author of a best-selling book for the Italian
public. Professor Cassano is the Director of the Institute of Psychiatry of the
University of Pisa, where he is leading a group of researchers and clinicians
who have combined expertise both in academic and clinical psychiatry advancing
our understanding of the ‘spectrum’ concept in mood, anxiety and eating
disorders.
PAULA J. CLAYTON, M.D.
Clinical Professor of Psychiatry
University of New Mexico School of Medicine
Professor Emeritus
University of Minnesota Medical School
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Dr. Clayton graduated from the University of
Michigan in 1956 with a Bachelor of Science degree. In 1960, she graduated AOA
from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri. She did
her psychiatric residency there and joined the staff in 1965. She progressed
from instructor, to assistant, to associate, and finally to full professor in
1976. In September of 1980, she was appointed Professor and the Head of the
Department of Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota School of Medicine where
she served until her retirement in 1999. She is a professor Emeritus there. Her
first paper, in 1965, defined mania. In 1969, she published, with Drs. Winokur
and Reich, the first textbook on mania entitled Manic Depressive Illness. She
published three additional books, more than 150 papers and 20 book chapters. Her
areas of expertise and research are mood disorders, particularly bipolar and
unipolar illness, and bereavement. She is still active in research in these
areas.
She is a member of many editorial boards,
psychiatric societies, has served on study sections and has been on many other
governmental and nongovernmental committees. In 1985, she received the Athena
Award from the University of Michigan as the outstanding woman alumna of the
year. She also received a Distinguished Alumnae Award from Washington University
in 1985 and in 1993, the First Aphrodite Jannapaula Hofsommer Award from
Washington University.
When she was appointed to the Chair at the
University of MN School of Medicine, she was the first woman chair of a
department of psychiatry in the country and the first woman chair in the medical
school in MN. She served for almost 20 years. During that time, the first 3rd
year psychiatry clerkship began, grand rounds became a weekly affair featuring
clinical cases and noted speakers, the department research budget grew from
about $300,000 to $15,000,000, two endowed chairs and two professorships were
funded, multiple named lectures were begun, and finally, the department received
generous and well appointed new space for it's outpatient clinical services and
offices. At the same time the inpatient space was expanded for adult and child
services and substance abuse care.
She is currently a Professor of Psychiatry at the
University of New Mexico School of Medicine where she teaches at the psychiatric
outpatient 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, a psychotherapy she and her colleagues
developed for the adjunctive treatment of manic-depressive illness. She recently
completed an NIMH-sponsored study of women with recurrent depression in which
she examined how psychobiology, life stress, and different “doses” of
psychotherapy interact to increase or decrease vulnerability to new episodes of
depression. In addition, Dr. Frank is currently involved in a joint project with
researchers at the University of Pisa, Italy 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 Task Force on
DSM-IV and was Chair of the Food and Drug Administration Psychopharmacologic
Drugs Advisory Panel. Dr. Frank is also a former member of the National Advisory
Mental Health Council and the National Institutes of Health Panel on Scientific
Boundaries for Review. She is an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric
Association. In 1999, Dr. Frank was elected to the National Academy of Sciences
Institute of Medicine.
JOHN GEDDES, M.D., FRCPsych.
Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry
University of Oxford
Oxford, United Kingdom
Professor Geddes received his medical training in
the UK at Leeds University. He trained in psychiatry in Sheffield, Edinburgh and
Oxford. Since 1995, he has worked in the Department of Psychiatry at the
University of Oxford. He was made professor in 2002.
Professor Geddes has conducted both observational
and interventional epidemiological research into depression, schizophrenia and
bipolar disorder as well as several other conditions. His current research
focuses on conducting large scale randomized clinical trials and using the
results of systematic overviews and meta-analysis to inform clinical practice.
Professor Geddes continues to run a busy clinical
practice, specializing on the treatments of patients with mood disorders.
VALENTIM GENTIL, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of São Paulo Medical School
Chairman, Institute of Psychiatry
Hospital das Clínicas
São Paulo, Brazil
Dr. Gentil completed his medical studies and
residency in Psychiatry at the Department and Institute of Psychiatry in São
Paulo. He then was a post-graduate student at the Institute of Psychiatry and
Maudsley Hospital in London, UK, where he obtained his PhD in Clinical
Psychopharmacology under the supervision of Prof.Malcolm Lader. Back to Brazil,
Dr.Gentil was assistant and then associate professor in the Departments of
Pharmacology (until 1987) and Psychiatry (1986-current) of the University of São
Paulo (USP). His teaching, clinical and research activities include work in the
areas of diagnosis, treatment and psychophysiology of mood and affective
disorders. He was Head of the Department of Psychiatry in 1992-96, and since
1994 he is Professor and Chairman of the Institute of Psychiatry, a 200 bed
academic psychiatric facility within the 2000 bed medical centre of the USP
Medical School. His current projects include a collaborative investigation of
the psychobiological mechanisms of emotional regulation and appetite/weight
control under antidepressants, and the development of an efficient programme for
bipolar disorder prevention. He has published more than 65 articles in
peer-reviewed journals, and is a member of the editorial boards of Bipolar
Disorder, Molecular Psychiatry, Journal of Psychopharmacology, and Stress &
Health, among others. Besides his academic and clinical activities, Dr. Gentil
serves in the advisory board of ABRATA - Brazilian Association of Affective
Disorders - a non-professional organization.
SAMUEL GERSHON, M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Samuel Gershon joined the faculty at the
University of Pittsburgh in April 1988, as 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 that 45 years. During this time he has published more than 600
writings and has won several prestigious 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. He is
currently the Co-Editor of Bipolar Disorders – An International Journal of
Psychiatry and Neurosciences and has been since its inception in 1998. He is
also a founding Councilor of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders and
was elected as President in 2001.
GIOVANNI DE GIROLAMO, M.D.
Department of Mental Health
Bologna
Consultant
National Institute of Health
National Mental Health Project
Rome, Italy
Giovanni de Girolamo currently works at the
Department of Mental Health in Bologna (Italy). He has a Degree in Medicine and
a Postgraduate Degree in Psychiatry (University of Naples).
He has worked as clinical psychiatrist in various
facilities in Italy, and has been involved in a variety of research projects in
Italy and elsewhere. He has received Fellowships to spend some time at the
Institute of Psychiatry in London (with Michael Shepherd, one of the fathers of
psychiatric epidemiology), at the Institute of Psychiatric Demography in Aarhus
(Denmark), and, more recently, at the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
in Pittsburgh, USA. He has been the Director of the Italian Collaborating Centre
involved in the WHO Quality of Life Project (WHOQOL).
From 1988 to 1994, he worked at the Division of
Mental Health of WHO in Geneva, initially as Associate Professional Officer and
then as Medical Officer, under the guidance of Norman Sartorius. From 1998 to
2001 he was the Director of the National Mental Health Project, based at the
Italian National Institute of Health in Rome, which involved 27 specific
research projects and more than 100 centres throughout Italy. Among these
projects there is the survey of all non-hospital residential facilities hosting
psychiatric patients in Italy (the largest survey ever done in this area).
He has had several teaching appointments in
Italy, and has organized several national and international meetings. His
research focuses on the epidemiology of schizophrenia, PTSD, and personality
disorders; evidence-based medicine applied to psychiatry; drug-utilization
studies; psychiatric rehabilitation; and quality of life. He has edited or
authored more than 25 volumes or monographs, some 100 papers and 35 book
chapters in 3 languages.
JOSEPH F. GOLDBERG, M.D.
Research Scientist
Zucker Hillside Hospital
North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System
Glen Oaks, New York
Dr. Goldberg is currently a Research Scientist in
the Department of Psychiatry at the Zucker Hillside Hospital of the North
Shore/Long Island Jewish Health System. He attended college at the University of
Chicago and obtained a master’s degree in neuroscience from the University of
Illinois before attending medical school at Northwestern University. Thereafter,
he completed his psychiatry residency, Chief Residency, and research fellowship
in psychopharmacology at the Payne Whitney Clinic of New York Presbyterian
Hospital. After joining the faculty there in 1997 he founded the Cornell Bipolar
Disorders Research Program which he directed until moving to Zucker Hillside
Hospital in 2003. He also was Principal Investigator at the Cornell site of the
NIMH Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD)
from 1999-2003. Dr. Goldberg’s research focuses on the pharmacotherapy, course,
pharmacogenetics, and outcome of bipolar disorder. He is the recipient of an
NIMH Career Development Award, an NIMH New Investigator Award, a 2-time
recipient of a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, and an associate member of the
American College of Neuropsychopharmacology. He has published one book and over
40 articles on the phenomenology and treatment of bipolar disorder.
GUY GOODWIN, M.D.
W. A. Handley Professor of Psychiatry Chairman of
University Department Warneford Hospital Oxford
United Kingdom
Dr. Goodwin trained in medicine and completed a DPhil in physiology at Oxford. After training in psychiatry he spent 10 years as
Clinical Scientist and Consultant Psychiatrist in the Medical Research Council (MRC)
Brain Metabolism Unit in Edinburgh, Scotland. He has served as a member on the
Wellcome Trust Neurosciences Panel, the Council of the British Association for
Psychopharmacology and the Clinical Fellowships Panel and Advisory Board of the
MRC. He is currently president of the British Association for
Psychopharmacology. Dr. Goodwin has published more than 200 refereed papers and
book chapters.
Dr. Goodwin has been W. A. Handley Professor of
Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, Oxford, UK since 1996. His research
interests are in the neurobiology and treatment of mood disorder. He has helped
develop the basis for a large-scale pragmatic clinical trial in bipolar
affective disorder, BALANCE.
MARTHA HELLANDER
Executive Director
Child and Adolescent Bipolar Foundation
Wilmette, Illinois
Martha Hellander, J.D., of Wilmette, Illinois is
executive director and webmaster of the Child & Adolescent Bipolar Foundation (CABF),
a Web-based, not-for-profit organization of over 10,000 families raising
children diagnosed with, or at risk for, bipolar disorder. She founded an
on-line parent support group on Compuserve in 1996 that merged with BPParents,
another online group, in 1997. In 1999, she convened and chaired (entirely
on-line) the national steering committee that founded CABF with an initial group
of 200 families.
CABF's interactive web site, www.bpkids.org, is a
virtual community center with over twenty on-line support groups (including
several in countries outside the U.S.), 17 message boards, a global database of
professionals, a Learning Center with numerous full-text medical journal
articles, a gallery of children's art, and more. The site was named a Peter F.
Drucker Nonprofit Innovation Web site in 2002. It serves over 4 million hits per
month and has been visited by people from over 50 countries.
CABF publishes a bi-monthly electronic
newsletter, the e-Bulletin, distributed free to over 14,000 subscribers by
e-mail. It contains in-depth articles on pediatric bipolar disorder, stories of
children and families, legislative news, and interviews with leading researchers
about their work.
Martha Hellander is a graduate of the University
of Minnesota (B.A. Economics 1975) and University of Minnesota School of Law
(J.D. 1978) and practiced family law and appellate law in Minnesota and Chicago
from 1978-l988. She is also an award-winning writer (Parenting Publications of
America Best Feature Award 1992, Minnesota Book Award 1993).
THOMAS R. INSEL, M.D.
Director, National Institute of Mental Health
Bethesda, Maryland
Thomas R. Insel, M.D., is Director of the
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), the component of the National
Institutes of Health charged with generating the knowledge needed to understand,
treat, and prevent mental disorders that affect an estimated 44 million
Americans, including one in five children. Dr. Insel sees as priorities for NIMH
the discovery of susceptibility genes and diagnostic biomarkers for the major
mental disorders; research that will lead to a reduction in suicide, which today
is globally responsible for as many deaths as wars and homicides combined;
enhanced behavioral strategies for reducing HIV/AIDS transmission; and
elucidating causal risk processes that will enable prevention of mental
disorders.
Immediately prior to his appointment as Director,
which marks his return to NIMH after an 8-year hiatus, Dr. Insel was Professor
of Psychiatry at Emory University. There, he was founding director of the Center
for Behavioral Neuroscience, one of the largest science and technology centers
funded by the National Science Foundation and, concurrently, Director of an NIH-funded
Center for Autism Research. From 1994 to 1999, he was Director of the Yerkes
Regional Primate Research Center in Atlanta. While at Emory, Dr. Insel continued
the line of research he had initiated at NIMH studying the neurobiology of
complex social behaviors in animals. A particular focus of his work has examined
the role of the neuropeptides oxytocin and vasopressin in social attachment –
including, for example, maternal behavior and pair-bond formation – and in
aggressive behavior. This work established his place on the ISI’s list of the
200 most frequently cited neuroscientists in the 1990s. Early in his NIMH
research career, which extended from 1979 to 1994, Dr. Insel conducted clinical
research on obsessive-compulsive disorder, conducting some of the first
treatment trials for OCD using the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI)
class of medications.
Dr. Insel serves on numerous academic,
scientific, and professional committees, including 10 editorial boards. He is a
fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, and has is a
recipient of the A. E. Bennett Award from the Society for Biological Psychiatry,
In 1991, he was recipient of the prestigious Curt Richter Prize for his studies
of the neurobiology of attachment. Additional awards have been granted by the
Public Health Service and the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia
and Depression (NARSAD). Dr. Insel graduated from the combined B.A.-M.D. program
at Boston University in 1974. He did his internship at Berkshire Medical Center,
Pittsfield, Massachusetts, and his residency at the Langley Porter
Neuropsychiatric Institute at the University of California, San Francisco.
PAUL E. KECK, JR., M.D.
Professor and Vice Chairman for Research
Department of Psychiatry
University of Cincinnati college of Medicine
Cincinnati, Ohio
Paul E. Keck, Jr., MD, is Professor of
Psychiatry, Pharmacology and Neuroscience, and Vice Chairman for Research,
Department of Psychiatry, University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. Dr. Keck
is also Chief, Division of Clinical Neuroscience, affiliated with the University
of Cincinnati Medical Center, and Associate Director of the General Clinical
Research Center, Cincinnati Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Keck’s program
conducts research regarding the nosology, biology, course of illness, genetics,
and treatment of bipolar disorder. In addition, the Division is a center for the
study of new medicines to treat mood, anxiety, psychotic, eating, and impulse
control disorders.
A graduate of Dartmouth College, Dr. Keck
received his M.D. from the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, NY. He
served his internship in Internal Medicine at the Beth Israel Medical Center in
New York and completed his residency training in Psychiatry at McLean Hospital,
Belmont, MA. Dr. Keck remained on faculty at McLean and Harvard Medical School
before joining the faculty at the University of Cincinnati in 1991.
Dr. Keck is the author of over 385 scientific
papers and abstracts in leading medical journals. He has also contributed over
110 reviews and chapters to major psychiatric textbooks. Dr. Keck is the editor
of the book Managing Depressive Symptoms in Schizophrenia and co-author of The
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome and Related Conditions (2nd ed.). He serves on
the editorial boards of 6 journals and is Deputy Editor of Current Psychiatry.
He also served on the American Psychiatric Association’s Workgroup to Develop
Practice Guidelines for Treatment of Patients with Bipolar Disorders (1994 and
2001) and currently serves on the APA Institute for Research and Education. Dr.
Keck is currently a member of the FDA Psychopharmacologic Drug Advisory
Committee.
Dr. Keck is the recipient of numerous honors,
including the Gerald Klerman Young Investigator Award from the National
Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association (NDMDA); the Exemplary Psychiatrist
Award from the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI); the Philip Isenberg
Teaching Award from Harvard Medical School; the Nancy C A Roeske Certificate for
medical student education from the American Psychiatric Association; the
Wyeth-Ayerst AADPRT Mentorship Award; two Communicator Awards for Continuing
Medical Education; the Outstanding Physician Partner Award of the Postgraduate
Institute for Medicine; and two Golden Apple Teaching Awards from the University
of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
He is listed as one of the Best Doctors in
Cincinnati by Cincinnati Magazine; The Best Doctors in America, a directory of
the top one percent of physicians in the United States as rated by their peers;
and as one of the nation’s Best Mental Health Experts by Good Housekeeping
Magazine. Dr. Keck is also the Director of Scientific Development for the
Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome Information Service (NMSIS).
ATHANASIOS KOUKOPOULOS, M.D.
Director
Centro Lucio Bini
Rome, Italy
Director of the Centro Lucio Bini, a center for
the treatment and study of psychiatric conditions, particularly affective
disorders, that he and other colleagues founded in 1970. In 1977, he founded the
Centro Lucio Bini in Cagliari with Dr. Leonardo Tondo. From 1963 to 1998 he was
the Head of the medical staff of the Clinica Belvedere Montello, a private
psychiatric in-patient facility in Rome.
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 on 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 such as the response to prophylactic lithium treatment and the
increase of bipolarity and frequency of recurrences following antidepressant
drug treatments. The role of temperament, the previous course of illness, the
study of agitated depression as a mixed state, as well as the concomitant
factors, course and treatment of rapid cyclicity have been the central focus of
his work.
DAVID J. KUPFER, M.D.
Thomas Detre Professor and Chairman
Department of Psychiatry
Professor of Neuroscience
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
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. As Thomas Detre Professor and Chairman of the Department of
Psychiatry and Director of Research at WPIC, he oversees the coordination and
expansion of investigations among the department's almost 200 faculty. He has
promoted widespread collaborations between clinical investigators in psychiatry
and those in more basic neurosciences. These studies are not limited to
depression and other mood disorders but encompass virtually every psychiatric
disorder and every age group, from infants to the "oldest old." Under Dr.
Kupfer's direction, WPIC has become one of the nation's preeminent
university-based psychiatric centers as evidenced by the quality and number of
publications as well as the amount of peer-reviewed federal funding for mental
health research.
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 835 articles, books, and book chapters that
examine the use of medication in recurrent depression, the causes of depression,
and the relationship between biomarkers 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), the Institute of Medicine’s 1998 Rhoda and
Bernard Sarnat International Prize in Mental Health, and the American
Psychopathological Association’s 1999 Joseph Zubin Award (jointly with Dr. Ellen
Frank). He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of
Sciences in 1990.
FOUZIA LAGHRISSI-THODE, M.D.
CNS Director New Medicine Strategy F. Hoffmann-La
Roche Ltd.
Basel, Switzerland
Since January 2003, Fouzia Laghrissi-Thode, M.D.
has been, at F. Hoffmann-La Roche (Basel, Switzerland), a Global Head of Primary
Care Business Development. She joined the Roche Group in 2000 as a CNS Leader in
the New Medicines Strategy Department. Dr. Laghrissi-Thode also holds, since
1992, an appointment as an Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (USA).
Prior to joining F. Hoffmann-La Roche, she worked for three years in the
International Clinical Research Nervous System Department of Novartis Pharma
(Basel, Switzerland). After graduating in Medicine at the University of Tours
(France) in 1987 and completing residencies in General and Internal Medicine,
she specialized in Psychiatry and received her European certification in 1992.
As a Principal Investigator, she 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 CRC for the Study of Affective Disorders
and Late Life Mood Disorders.
BRENDA E. LEE
Executive Director
Mental Health Association of Allegheny County
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Brenda E. Lee is the Executive Director of the
Mental Health Association of Allegheny County. Prior to becoming executive
director, she was the Director of Development from 1991 until May 1999.
Ms. Lee joined the Mental Health Association of
Allegheny County in 1991 as Director of Development. Prior to moving to
Pittsburgh, Ms. Lee was Director of Development for the American Lung
Association, Planned Parenthood and the Overseas Educational Fund in Washington,
D.C. Before moving to the Washington, DC area she worked for the Edna McConnell
Clark Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the Bedford-Stuyvesant
Community Corporation, in New York and the Y.W.C.A. in Montclair, NJ
Ms. Lee was born in New York, raised in
Montclair, NJ and is a graduate of Howard University.
LYDIA LEWIS
Executive Director
Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance
Chicago, Illinois
Lydia Lewis became President of the Depression
and Bipolar Support Alliance, formerly the National Depressive and
Manic-Depressive Association, in June 1997. Her primary responsibility is to
position the organization as the leading resource for patients (both diagnosed
and undiagnosed,) family members, professionals, legislators and the media who
want (or need) to know more about mood disorders and their treatments. In
addition, she is the principal spokesperson for the organization, and the
primary advocate on federal level.
Ms. Lewis has spoken at the invitation of various
mental health organizations, including the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Psychiatric Association, the American
Psychological Association, the National Foundation for Brain Research, the
National Institute of Mental Health, and the Society for Biological Psychiatry.
Manuscripts authored or co-authored by Ms. Lewis
have been published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Archives of General
Psychiatry, Clinical Psychiatry News, Disease Management & Health Outcomes,
Journal of Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, and
Psychopharmacology Bulletin.
She is a member of the oversight committees of
several large NIMH clinical trials and recently served on the search committee
for the new director of the National Institute of Mental Health. She was a
charter member of the National Institutes of Health Director’s Council of Public
Representatives.
Prior to joining the DBSA, Ms. Lewis served 11
years as the Executive Director and Chief Operations Officer for The Committee
of 200, the pre-eminent international association of women business executives.
She also held various marketing positions at AT&T for nearly eight years.
She holds a Bachelor of Arts in psychology from
the State University of New York at Buffalo. One of her proudest accomplishments
has been her willingness to do life-long battle with depression, recently -
after 50 years - re-diagnosed as bipolar disorder.
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