Biographical Sketches of Course Directors and
Presenting
Faculty (A - L)
Bios M-Z
LORI ALTSHULER,
M.D.
Director of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences
University of California at Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Lori Altshuler, M.D., is an international expert in
the study and treatment of bipolar illness and depression in women. For fifteen
years she has been treating people with mood disorders in her clinical and
research practice. She has been the recipient of over 8 million dollars in both
government and private research funding. Her clinical experience has always
driven the questions she has to decided to pursue in research. She has proposed
novel ideas for medication regimens for persons suffering from mood disorders
(bipolar disorder and depression) and her imaging research has broken ground in
learning about the brain structures of individuals who have these illnesses.
Dr. Altshuler is a Professor of Psychiatry and
Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA and received her bachelor and M.D. degrees from
Cornell. Following completion of her residency at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric
Institute, she conducted research as a visiting scholar at the Shanghai
Psychiatric Institute in Shanghai, China. Upon her return, she continued her
research in the biological correlates of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder
during a two-year fellowship at the Biological Psychiatry Branch of the National
Institute of Mental Health. In 1989 she was appointed assistant clinical
professor at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and in her first year on
faculty received the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital Junior Faculty Distinguished
Teaching Award. She has been an active teacher and research mentor, and in 1994
and again in 2004 received the UCLA Department of Psychiatry Outstanding
Research Mentor Award. She was recently awarded the endowed Julia S. Gouw Chair
in Mood Disorders at the UCLA Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Altshuler directs two research programs: the
UCLA Mood Disorders Research Program and the Women's Research Program. The
overarching theme of both is to better understand the etiology and treatment of
mood disorders in both the general population and in the specific populations of
pregnant, postpartum and menopausal women. The programs use longitudinal imaging
studies as well as medication trials with longitudinal follow-up. The Program
has been funded by NIH grants, Veterans Administration grants, non-profit
foundation grants, several industry-sponsored grants, and UCLA departmental
support.
The Mood Disorders Research Program focuses
primarily on major depression and bipolar disorder. The goal of the program is
to treat individuals suffering from bipolar disorder and to further our
understanding of this disorder through research. In 1995 Dr. Altshuler joined in
forming an international consortium of academic physicians (The Stanley
Foundation Bipolar Network) to assess the course of illness in and treatment of
patients with bipolar illness. The mission of the consortium is two-fold: 1) to
record demographic information over the long-term course in patients with
bipolar illness; and 2) to develop protocols related to treatment interventions
to assess efficacy of various psychotropic medications in the treatment of mania
and depression. The Mood Disorders Research Program also has funding from
private sponsors and the National Institute of Mental Health to use structural
and functional MRI to record images of the brain during mania, depression and
euthymia in persons with bipolar disorder.
The Women’s Research Program has attracted national
attention. Studies that have been funded include assessing predictors of
depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period; evaluating the risks of
antidepressants during pregnancy on infant outcome compared to the risk of
untreated depression on maternal health in pregnancy; the relationship between
mood stabilizing agents when used in women with bipolar disorder and the
development of polycystic ovary disease; the impact of study estrogen
replacement therapy on mood in women with depression in the perimenopause.
DAVID AXELSON, M.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Director, Child and Adolescent Bipolar
Services Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Axelson is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and the director of the Child
and Adolescent Bipolar Services (CABS) clinic. 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’s research interests include pediatric bipolar
disorder, metabolism of psychiatric medications in the pediatric population, the
neurobiological basis of mood disorders and treatment of mood disorders in
children and adolescents. He received a career development award from the
National Institute of Mental Health. He is currently involved in studies
examining medication and psychosocial treatments of pediatric bipolar disorder,
as well as longitudinal studies of the phenomenology of pediatric bipolar
disorder. Dr. Axelson is on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the American
Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and serves as an ad hoc reviewer for
the American Journal of Psychiatry, Biological Psychiatry the Bipolar Disorder
journal.
MARK S. BAUER, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Brown University
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
Professor of Psychiatry at Brown University and on staff at the Providence (RI)
Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Bauer has received awards for research,
teaching, administration, and clinical care. He has served on the Scientific
Advisory Board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance for over a decade,
has twice been named Exemplary Psychiatrist by the National Alliance for the
Mentally Ill, and is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric
Association.
Dr. Bauer’s scientific focus for the last decade has
been on developing and testing collaborative practice methods to improve
treatment delivery for manic-depressive disorder. Additional scientific
contributions include use of high dose thyroid hormone treatment for rapid
cycling manic-depressive disorder, as well as improving assessment,
phenomenology, and course in manic-depressive disorder.
Dr. Bauer 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). He has published over 80 scientific
articles and made well over 100 scientific presentations.
ANNE BERGHOEFER,
M.D.
Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology
and Health Economics
Charité University Medicine Berlin
Berlin, Germany
Dr. Berghoefer received her medical training at the
Free University in Berlin, Germany, where in 1992 she began her psychiatric
residency at the Department of Psychiatry. Since 2001, Dr. Berghoefer has been
a research assistant at the Institute for Social Medicine, Epidemiology and
Health Economics at Charité University Medicine Berlin, the joint medical
faculty of Free University and Humboldt University Berlin.
Dr. Berghoefer has conducted research at the
Research Group for Clinical Psychopharmacology and Berlin Lithium Clinic
(Director Prof. Mueller-Oerlinghausen) in the following areas: long-term
evaluation and prophylaxis of affective disorders, treatment algorithms in
therapy-resistant affective disorders, and long-term lithium therapy. She
currently works in the area of health services research in psychiatric
disorders.
Dr. Berghoefer is currently a member of the German
Society for Psychiatry, Psychotherapy and Neurology (DGPPN), the German Society
for Bipolar Disorders (DGBS), and the International Group for the Study of
Lithium Treated Patients (IGSLI) where she holds the position of the scientific
secretary.
BORIS BIRMAHER, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, PA
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. Dr. Birmaher recently published a book
for parents and clinicians entitled “New Hope for Children and Teens with
Bipolar Disorder”. 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.
Professor of Psychiatry and Pharmacology
Nancy U. Karren Chair in Psychiatry
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San
Antonio
Dr. Charles 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, Journla 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.
JOSEPH R.
CALABRESE, M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Mood Disorders Program
Case Western Reserve University
Co-Director, Bipolar Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio
Dr. Calabrese completed his medical training at Ohio
State University and his psychiatric residency at the Cleveland Clinic. After
completing a research fellowship at the NIMH, he returned to Cleveland in 1989
to start the Mood Disorders Program. Dr. Calabrese is a Professor of Psychiatry
at Case Western Reserve University & Director of the Mood Disorders Program. He
co-directs along with Robert Findling, MD, the NIMH-funded ‘Bipolar Research
Center’ in Cleveland, Ohio.
Dr. Calabrese has received five NIMH/Federal
research grants. The general focus of the research center is ‘improving clinical
outcomes in underserved populations of bipolar disorder’, including those
receiving care within community mental health centers, children, adults, older
adults, and those currently abusing alcohol or drugs.
Dr. Calabrese has over 220 scientific publications
that focus on the phenomenology and treatment of bipolar disorder. His
individual scientific focus is the development of the class of anticonvulsants
and the atypical antipsychotic agents as long-term treatments with special
emphasis on rapid cycling and dual diagnosis presentations.
Dr. Calabrese was chosen by psychiatry residents to
receive the ‘Best Teacher of the Year Award’ in three different years, and in
2004, received a NARSAD Lifetime Achievement Award for Psychiatric Research into
Mood Disorders.
ADRIANO CAMARGO
President of ABRATA
Brazilian Association for Affective Disorders
São Paulo, Brazil
As one of the founders of Brazilian Association for
Affective Disorders - ABRATA, Adriano Camargo started coordinating the
Scientific Council in November 1999, became Vice-President in 2001 and President
in 2004. ABRATA is an NGO with more than 1700 members including consumers,
families and friends
His main target is to educate consumers and their
families as well as health professionals and society as a whole, to be able to
deal with the nature and treatment of affective disorders. Another target is to
promote support to patients and families, eliminating the stigma and
discrimination and encouraging research in the area.
He has participated in many conferences such as
World Psychiatric Association International Congress, the Annual Conferences of
the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, World Federation for Mental Heath
Biennial (for which he has received a scholarship integrating a group from
developing and undeveloped countries in February 2003), among which he exchanges
information about mood disorders with professionals, consumers and families,
presenting the Brazilian experience.
In Brazil he divulges ABRATA’s work lecturing at the
invitation of various NGOs, companies, faculties and professional congresses. He
is one of the founders and Vice-President of Association for Children’s
Emotional Health – ASEC that is introducing Zippy’s Friends, a British program
which focuses on educating children to deal with their emotions and feelings. He
is a Collaborator Psychologist at the Psychiatry Institute of Clinical Hospital
from University of São Paulo Medical School.
Adriano Camargo holds a BA in Psychology from
Mackenzie University in São Paulo and a MSc from the University of São Paulo
Medical School. He has developed research and implanted self-help groups in
ABRATA.
GIOVANNI BATTISTA CASSANO, M.D.
Full Professor of Psychiatry
Institute of Psychiatry
University of Pisa, Italy
Giovanni Battista Cassano M.D. has been Full
Professor of Psychiatry, Institute of Psychiatry, University of Pisa -Italy,
since 1978 and since 2001, Director of the Department of Psychiatry, Neurology,
Pharmacology and Biology of the University of Pisa. He is a fellow of The Royal
College of Psychiatrists- London, member of the American Psychopathological
Association and of Geselleschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater.
He was the 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 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. Due to
his contribution in this area, he obtained a NIMH grant from 1980 to 1986. He
conducted and coordinated a large member 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 recent years he has 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. Through this collaboration structured interviews for the
evaluation and the assessment of subthreshold manifestations of bipolar, panic,
eating, obsessive-compulsive and social-phobic disorders have been developed and
are being validated. Concerning nosography, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychiatric 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 leads a group of researchers and clinicians who
have combined expertise both in academic and clinical psychiatry advancing
understanding of the ‘spectrum’ concept in mood, anxiety and eating disorders.
K.N. ROY
CHENGAPPA, M.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
K.N. Roy Chengappa, MD, is an Associate Professor of
Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh
School of Medicine and the Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, and is
Attending Psychiatrist at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, the Veterans
Administration Hospital - Highland Drive Division and Mayview State Hospital,
all in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Dr. Chengappa received his medical degree from the
University of Mysore in India. His psychiatric training took place worldwide,
beginning at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuroscience in
Bangalore, India, then at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, and finally
at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. He completed a 2-year
US National Institute of Mental Health-sponsored fellowship at Western
Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, before joining the faculty
there.
Dr Chengappa has published several articles in
peer-reviewed journals and is Co-Editor in Chief of the journal Bipolar
Disorders. For 15 years, he has conducted clinical trials of second-generation
antipsychotic and anticonvulsant agents in subjects with schizophrenia or
bipolar disorder. He is closely involved with patient care and their family
members. He is also involved in the mentoring of psychiatric residents and
medical students.
FRANCESC
COLOM, PSYD, MSC, PHD
Chair
Psychoeducation and Psychological Treatmeants Area
Barcelona Bipolar Disorders Program
Hospital Clinic, University of Barcelona, Spain
Francesc Colom, PsyD, MSc, PhD is Doctor Cum Laude
in Clinical Psychology, Master in Social Psychiatry by the University of
Barcelona (Spain), has a degree in Psychobiology and Psychopharmacology
(University of Barcelona), and is Master in Affective Neuroscience by the
University of Maastricht (The Netherlands). Dr Colom is the Head of the
Psychoeducation and Psychological Treatments Area at the Barcelona Bipolar
Disorders Program (IDIBAPS- Hospital Clinic University of Barcelona). He has
lectured worldwide and published several articles and book chapters on the
subject of treatment compliance and psychoeducational issues in bipolar
disorders. Dr. Colom’s research work also focuses on assessment and
pharmacological issues and on clinical issues such as comorbidity, personality
and the cognitive and neuropsychological factors regarding bipolar disorders and
particularly hypomania. He has been awarded with the prize of the Spanish
Association of Psychiatry by his works on comorbidity issues in bipolar
disorders and, as a part of the Barcelona Bipolar Disorders Program, was granted
by the Stanley Research Foundation (Bethesda, USA). At present, Dr. Colom holds
as well a position of Visiting Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry of
London. He also serves as scientific consultant of the National Bipolar
Disorders Association in Spain, is member of the Board of Councilors of the
International Society for Bipolar Disorders, is referee and member of the
editorial board of several peer-review journals, co-chairs the Spanish edition
of “Bipolar Disorders”, teaches in several masters and postgraduate studies and
also teaches medical and psychology residents.
GIOVANNI DE GIROLAMO, M.D.
Department of Mental Health
Bologna, 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 be attached 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 has been 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), the
survey on all the inpatient facilities for acute patients in Italy, a similar
survey (about to start) on Italian community mental health centres and finally
the Italian site of the European Study on the Epidemiology of Mental Disorders (ESEMeD),
part of the WHO World Mental Health Survey Initiative, led by Ronald Kessler.
He has had several teaching appointments in Italy,
and has organized several national and international meetings. His research
focuses on psychiatric epidemiology and health services research; evidence-based
medicine applied to psychiatry; drug-utilization studies; psychiatric
rehabilitation; quality of life. He has edited or authored more than 25 volumes
or monographs, some 130 papers and 35 book chapters in 3 languages.
J. RAYMOND
DEPAULO, Jr., M.D.
Henry Phipps Professor and Director of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatrist in Chief at the Johns Hopkins Hospital
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland
Dr. DePaulo is one of the world's foremost
investigators into the genetic bases of bipolar disorders. He is the author of
two books, How to Cope with Depression (1989) and Understanding Depression
(2002), as well as more than 100 scientific articles and six educational videos
on depressive illness. "
Dr. DePaulo was named the Henry Phipps Professor and
Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in 2002. Edward
D. Miller, M.D., Dean and CEO of Johns Hopkins Medicine, in announcing the
appointment said “his research had a major impact on the study of depression and
bipolar disorder.” Dr. DePaulo remains an active and sought after clinician.
His commitment to the teaching and mentoring reflects is optimistic vision of
the future of psychiatric research.
His ongoing research includes genetic studies of
bipolar disorder and unipolar disorder, and combined brain imaging and genetic
studies of bipolar families. His research group has identified several subtypes
of familial bipolar disorder and was first to demonstrate the linkage of bipolar
affective disorders to chromosome 18q.
A member of many professional societies and
editorial boards, Dr. DePaulo has served on advisory committees of the National
Association for Research in Schizophrenia and Depression. He was one of the
founding members of the Depression and Related Affective Disorders Association (DRADA),
and is on the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide
Prevention. Through a collaborative effort with Dr. Karen Swartz he has fostered
the development of a model health curriculum on depression for high schools.
In addition to his numerous awards for research in
depression and bipolar disorder, Dr. DePaulo was invited to address the World
Economics Forum in Davos, Switzerland, both in 2000 and 2001, about the burden
of psychiatric disease on national and global economies.
A native of Charleston, West Virginia, Dr. DePaulo
received his B.S. (Magna Cum Laude) from Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio,
and his M.D. from Hopkins. After completing his internship and residency at
Hopkins, he began his full-time academic career there in 1977 as Assistant
Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and founding director of the Affective
Disorders Clinic. He rose through the ranks to become associate professor in
1983 and professor in 1993 and finally the Chairman of the Department in 2002.
WAYNE DREVETS, M.D.
Chief, Section on Neuroimaging in
Mood and Anxiety Disorders
National Institute of Mental Health
Wayne C. Drevets, M.D. serves as the Chief of the
Section on Neuroimaging in Mood and Anxiety Disorders at the National Institute
of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Drevets received an M.D. degree from the
University of Kansas, and completed residency training in psychiatry at
Washington University Medical School. He then joined the Washington University
Department of Psychiatry faculty, ultimately attaining the rank of tenured
Associate Professor. During these years he conducted positron emission
tomography (PET) imaging studies of mood and anxiety disorders under the
mentorship of Dr. Marcus Raichle, supported initially by a NIMH trainee
fellowship, and later by a NIMH Scientist Development Award. He subsequently
moved to the University of Pittsburgh, where he continued to conduct psychiatric
neuroimaging research and acquired additional training in the application of PET
to neuroreceptor imaging, while supported by a NIMH Independent Scientist
Award. Dr. Drevets’ research has been additionally funded by project and career
development grants from the NIH and Private Foundations. In 2001, Dr. Drevets
joined the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of the NIMH IRP.
Dr. Drevets engages in multi-modal neuroimaging
studies that apply PET and MRI technologies to characterization of the
neurophysiological, receptor pharmacological, and neuroanatomical correlates of
mood and anxiety disorders. Major themes of his research involve: 1)
distinguishing neurophysiological and neuroreceptor pharmacological
abnormalities that persist across mood episodes from those that are mood-state
dependent; 2) investigating neural mechanisms of antidepressant and mood
stabilizing treatments; 3) applying PET radioligands to assess the serotonergic,
cholinergic, dopaminergic and benzodiazepine receptor systems in mood and
anxiety disorders; 4) combining metabolic, receptor pharmacologic, and
hemodynamic imaging with pharmacologic challenges or dietary manipulations that
alter monoamineregic or glucocorticoid transmission to investigate the function
of these systems in healthy and pathological emotional processing; 5) exploring
relationships between genotype and neuroimaging measures to elucidate genetic
effects on the variability of neural function, structure, and receptor
pharmacology, and the role these effects play in the etiology and pathogenesis
of mood disorders; 6) characterizing neuroimaging abnormalities in samples at
high familial risk for developing mood disorders to discover biomarkers of
vulnerability; 7) characterizing neurocognitive deficits and the fMRI correlates
of such deficits in the domains of attention, incentive and reward processing,
response to perceived failure, and biases for emotionally-valenced information
on memory and attention in depression; 8) employing brain images from mood
disordered subjects to guide neuropathological studies of clinically-similar,
subjects studied post mortem.
OMAR ELHAJ, M.D.
Senior Research Fellow
Therapeutics of Bipolar Disorder
NIMH Bipolar Disorders Research Center
Case Western Reserve University Cleveland, Ohio
Dr. Elhaj was born in Syria, where he earned his
medical degree from Damascus University School of Medicine, in 1995.
Dr. Elhaj completed postgraduate training in
Adult Psychiatry at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, in 2002. He then
completed two postgraduate training Fellowships in Addiction Psychiatry in 2003,
and in Geriatric Psychiatry in 2004, both at Case University School of Medicine
and University Hospitals of Cleveland. Currently, Dr. Elhaj is serving as the
senior research fellow in Therapeutics of Bipolar Disorders in the NIMH Bipolar
Disorders Research Center at Case School of Medicine and University Hospitals of
Cleveland.
While functioning as the University of Missouri
Chief Resident in the Department of Psychiatry, Dr. Elhaj’s awards of academic
excellence accumulated rapidly, including the Research Fellow Award by the
STEP-BD Program in 2001, the Excellence Award in Psychotherapy in 2001, the APA
Resident Reporter Travel Award in 2002, and the “Resident of The Year Award” in
2002. While in Cleveland, he has more recently received the second prize in the
All Ohio Institute on Community Psychiatry Poster Competition in March of 2003,
the MIRECC Research Travel Award in May of 2003, the NCDEU Young Investigator
Award sponsored by NIMH in May of 2004, and in June of 2004 received the Mahmoud
A. Parsa Research Excellence Award from the Department of Psychiatry at Case
School of Medicine and University Hospitals of Cleveland.
Dr. Elhaj research interests include the
phenomenology of and therapeutic interventions for dually diagnosed bipolar
disorders and substance use disorders, the interface between the criminal
justice and mental health systems, and community outreach. He just received his
first Investigator-Initiated Research Proposal grant from the industry to
examine therapeutic interventions for bipolar disorder comorbid with substance
use disorders in the correctional setting.
ANDREA FAGIOLINI,
M.D.
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Fagiolini received his medical training in Italy
at the University of Pisa School of Medicine. He completed his psychiatric
residency at the University of Modena Medical School. Since 1998 he has been on
the faculty at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, in the Department of
Psychiatry, where he presently held the position of Medical Director of the
Bipolar Disorder Center for Pennsylvanians and of the Depression and Manic
Depression Prevention Program. He is also the Course Director for the
Introduction to Psychopharmacology Course of the WPIC Residency Training
Program.
Dr. Fagiolini’s research interests and publications
have primarily focused on topics such as the pharmacological treatment of
patients with bipolar disease, obesity and the metabolic disturbances in
patients with bipolar disorder, suicidality in bipolar disorder, the clinical
significance of the sub-threshold and typical symptoms of the mood and anxiety
spectrum disorders, and the relationships among residual symptoms, impairment
and quality of life in patients with bipolar disorder.
ROBERT L.
FINDLING, M.D.
Director, Division of Child and Adolescent
Psychiatry
University Hospitals of Cleveland
Professor of Psychiatry
Case Western Reserve University
Cleveland, Ohio
Dr. Findling is the Director of the Division of
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University Hospitals of Cleveland. He is also
a Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University. Dr.
Findling earned his undergraduate degree at Johns Hopkins University and went to
medical school at the Medical College of Virginia. Dr. Findling did a joint
residency-training program in Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Child & Adolescent
Psychiatry at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City. He is board certified in all
three specialties.
Dr. Findling’s research endeavors have focused on
pediatric psychopharmacology and psychotic disorders in the young. He has
extensive experience in pharmacokinetic studies of psychotropic agents in
pediatric patients. Dr. Findling has been honored with numerous awards and has
received international recognition as a clinical investigator. Dr. Findling is
currently the principal investigator of a Stanley Medical Research Institute
Clinical Research Center that is examining novel interventions early in the
course of juvenile bipolar illness. In collaboration with Joseph Calabrese,
M.D., Dr. Findling is the co-Principal Investigator on an NIMH developing center
grant that is focusing on the treatment of bipolar disorder across the life
span. Dr. Findling’s research is also supported in part from the NIH, the
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the St. Luke’s Foundation of
Cleveland, Ohio and the pharmaceutical industry. In addition, Dr. Findling is
the Chair of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s (AACAP)
Work Group on Research.
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 found Interpersonal and Social Rhythm
Therapy, a psychotherapy she and her colleagues developed for the treatment of
bipolar disorder, was efficacious in the prevention of manic and depressive
recurrence. She is currently conducting a joint study with researchers at the
University of Pisa, Italy, aimed at deriving algorithms that will enable
clinicians to determine whether a given depressed patient should be treated with
medication or psychotherapy.
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.
DEBRA
FRANKEL, L.C.S.W.
Debra Frankel is a trainer, supervisor and
clinician at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in the Depression
and Manic Depression Prevention Program at Western Psychiatric Institute and
Clinic. She was orginially trained in Interpersonal Psychotherapy in 1985 and
has treated numerous mood disorder patients using this modality. Ms. Frankel
helped to modify interpersonal therapy for bipolar disorder patients and has
been training and supervising patients in IPSRT since 1991. She has participated
in clinical trials involving both Interpersonal Therapy and Interpersonal and
Social Rythm Therapy. She serves as a training supervor for research clinicians
utlizing these techniques. She is a clinical supervisor at the University of
Pittsburgh Graduate School in Psychology. She has a private practice
specializing in mood and anxiety disorders. She received her undergraduate
degree from Kenyon College in 1978 and master's degree at Columbia University
School of Social Work in 1980.
MARK A. FRYE, M.D.
Associate Professor of Psychiatry in Residence
Director, UCLA Bipolar Research Program
Associate Director, UCLA Mood Disorders Research
Program
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, California
Mark A. Frye, MD, is Associate Professor of
Psychiatry in Residence, Director of the Bipolar Research Program, and Associate
Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at the David Geffen School of
Medicine at UCLA.
Dr. Frye received his medical degree from the
University of Minnesota and completed his psychiatric training at the UCLA
Neuropsychiatric Institute. He completed a subsequent research fellowship in the
Biological Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
in Bethesda, Maryland.
Dr. Frye is a recent recipient of the UCLA
Department of Psychiatry Outstanding Housestaff Teaching Award (2005, 2003) and
the DBSA Gerald Klerman Young Investigator Award (2002). His current research
interests include : new treatment development in bipolar disorder and
depression, neuroendocrinology and brain imaging of mood disorders, and the
impact of substance abuse and medical comorbidities on bipolar disorder course
of illness and treatment response, Dr. Frye has published more than 50
articles in peer-reviewed journals and is a frequent presenter at national
symposia on bipolar disorder and related topics.
JOHN GEDDES, M.D.
Professor of Epidemiological Psychiatry,
Department of Psychiatry,
University of Oxford
Oxford, UK
Professor Geddes is Professor of Epidemiological
Psychiatry at University of Oxford, UK. 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. He is Chief
Investigator on the international BALANCE trials and Director of the
Oxford-based Stanley Medical Research Institute Research Center in treatment
trials in bipolar disorder.
Professor Geddes is Principal Investigator on the UK
Medical Research Council funded NeuroGrid project – a project that will use
e-Science technology to facilitate large scale neuroimaging studies in clinical
neuroscience.
Professor Geddes is the Director of the Centre for
Evidence-Based Mental Health and Editor of Evidence-Based Mental Health
Professor Geddes is Honorary Consultant Psychiatrist
at the Oxfordshire Mental Healthcare NHS Trust where he provides clinical care
for patients with mood disorders, specialising in bipolar disorder. He is a
member of the Health Technology Appraisal Committee of the National Institute
for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).
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 than 50 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.
VALENTIM GENTIL,
MD, PhD
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 Professor 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 “Hospital das Clínicas - FMUSP”, the 2,000
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 program for bipolar disorder prevention. He has
published more than 65 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and is a member of
the editorial boards of several national and international journals including
Bipolar Disorders, Journal of
Psychopharmacology, and Stress & Health.
ELIZABETH L. GEORGE, PH.D.
Licensed Clinical Psychologist
Research Associate University of Colorado
Boulder, CO
Dr. George received her bachelor’s degree in
English and Psychology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She
received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from the University of Colorado in
Boulder. She completed her residency at the Denver Veterans Administration
Medical Center. Dr. George continues to hold a research position at the
University of Colorado-Boulder where she provides treatment, supervises, and
continues to develop research programs.
Dr. George has done extensive research in
treatment development for bipolar disorder. She has spent 14 years involved in
treatment outcome research for adult and adolescent bipolar disorder. She helped
to develop Integrated Family and Individual Treatment (IFIT) for bipolar
disorder. She co-wrote the manual for Family Focused Treatment (FFT) for
adolescent bipolar disorder. Currently she is involved in an ongoing FFT
treatment outcome study involving 55 families with an adolescent who has bipolar
disorder. Dr. George also provides trainings and lectures on many aspects of the
bipolar condition and it’s treatment including comorbidity issues and managing
bipolar in the academic environment.
In addition, Dr. George has an active private
practice that primarily focuses on treatment of bipolar II and the bipolar
spectrum disorders. She continues to be interested in finding new ways to
understand and treat this medically complicated illness.
GUY GOODWIN, M.D.
W A
Handley Professor of Psychiatry
University of Oxford Oxford, England
Dr.
Goodwin trained in medicine and completed a DPhil in physiology at Oxford. After
training in psychiatry he was for 10 years Clinical Scientist and Consultant
Psychiatrist in the MRC Brain Metabolism Unit in Edinburgh. Since 1996 he has
been Professor of Psychiatry and head of the University department in Oxford.
Dr.
Goodwin’s research interests are in the treatment of severe psychiatric illness
and the application of neuroscience in understanding the neurobiology of mood
disorder. Currently, he is involved in projects on the neurobiology and genetics
of vulnerability to mood disorder, the treatment of mania and the
psychopharmacology of social cognition. He has also helped develop the basis for
larger scale pragmatic clinical trials in bipolar affective disorder (BALANCE I
and II).
Dr.
Goodwin has served as a member of 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 was president of the British
Association for Psychopharmacology 2002-2004.
He has
published over 200 refereed papers and book chapters. He has acted as a reviewer
for numerous journals including the American Journal of Psychiatry, The Archives
of General Psychiatry, and Biological Psychiatry.
Dr.
Goodwin remains directly involved in patient care, almost exclusively focused on
bipolar disorders.
DELLA
M. HANN, PH.D.
Director, Office of Science Policy and Program
Planning
National Institute of Mental Health
Bethesda, Maryland
In July 2003, Dr. Della Hann returned to NIMH to
serve as the Director, Office of Science Policy and Program Planning.
Previously, she served as the Acting Director, Office of Reports and Analysis
and Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of Extramural Research, NIH. While in
OER, Dr. Hann had a number of reporting, outreach, and policy responsibilities
involving NIH extramural funding data, the CRISP database, GrantsInfo, the
inclusion of women and minorities, human embryonic stem cell research, and the
HIPPA Privacy Rule. Prior to working in OER, Dr. Hann was the Associate
Director for Research Training and Scientific Collaborations within the Division
of Mental Disorders, Behavioral Research, and AIDS at NIMH and served as project
officer for portfolios of research involving developmental psychopathology,
family processes, and interpersonal behavior. Before joining the government in
1991, Dr. Hann was a research associate at Louisiana State University Medical
Center in New Orleans where she completed a post-doctoral fellowship from the
John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Dr. Hann received her Ph.D. in
psychology from the University of Tennessee in 1986.
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. With a budget of over $1.4 billion, the NIMH leads
the nation’s research on disorders that affect an estimated 44 million
Americans, including one in five children.
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. 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. He has published over 200 scientific articles and four books,
including the Neurobiology of Parental Care (with Michael Numan) in 2003.
Dr. Insel has served on numerous academic,
scientific, and professional committees, including 10 editorial boards. He is a
member of the Institute of Medicine, a fellow of the American College of
Neuropsychopharmacology, and is a recipient of several awards [A. E. Bennett
Award from the Society for Biological Psychiatry, Curt Richter Prize from the
International Society of Psychoneuroendocrinology, Outstanding Service Award
from the U.S. Public Health Service, and a Distinguished Investigator Award from
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.
GORDON JOHNSON M.D.
Emeritus Professor of Psychological Medicine
University of Sydney, N.S.W.
Australia
Dr Johnson is a graduate of University of
Queensland.. He completed his training in psychiatry in the U.K. obtaining a
Diploma in Psychological Medicine. He was a recipient of an N.I.M.H. Training
Fellowship in Psychopharmacology at New York University. He was a founding
member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, later Fellow and of the Australian
and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists. He has been a member of the Faculty of
Medicine, University of Sydney since 1972.
His major research interests and publications have
been in Psychopharmacology and Mood Disorders. This has included genetics in
Bipolar Disorder, Lithium treatment and effects on acetylcholine metabolism and
renal function and research in Dexamethasone Pharmacokinetics and clinical
utility of the DST. He has been involved with numerous clinical trials in
depression and Schizophrenia. He has been a recipient of grants from the
National Health and Medical Research Council, private foundations and industry.
He is a councilor of the ISBD and on the executive editorial board of the
Journal of Bipolar Disorders. He is currently Director of a specialized Mood
Disorders facility in a private hospital operated by Ramsay Health Care Limited.
He also works as a consultant to the Therapeutic Goods Administration
Commonwealth of Australia and the Pharmaceutical industry.
PAUL E. KECK, JR.,
M.D.
Professor of Psychiatry, Pharmacology and
Neuroscience
Vice Chairman for Research Department of Psychiatry
University of Cincinnati College of Medicine
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 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 MD 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 390 scientific papers
and abstracts in leading medical journals. He has also contributed over 120
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.
DAVID KELLEY, M.D.
Professor of Medicine
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. David Kelley is a Professor of Medicine in the
Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the University of Pittsburgh, and is
director of the Obesity and Nutrition Research Center (NIH-NIDDK).
Dr. Kelley’s academic efforts focus upon a program
of clinical investigation of type 2 diabetes and obesity, with a primary
interest in insulin resistance with respect to skeletal muscle metabolism of
glucose and fatty acids. One main project in this line of study, a project
concentrated upon cellular biology, is to examine the role of mitochondrial
dysfunction in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance in type 2 DM and obesity.
Mitochondrial dysfunction likely plays a major role in the pathogenesis of lipid
accumulation in skeletal muscle and in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance.
Another project, one that centers on organ physiology, seeks to develop PET
imaging methods for the study skeletal muscle physiology. Collateral to these
are several projects studying adipose tissue metabolism and body composition in
obesity and type 2 DM.
In addition to integrated physiology studies, his
laboratory is also engaged in a range of clinical translation studies. Three of
these are the Look AHEAD trial, LABS, and BARI 2D, which are each NIH funded
multi-center clinical trials investigating, respectively, the effects of weight
loss on CVD morbidity and mortality in type 2 DM, outcomes of bariatric surgery,
and management options for CAD in type 2 DM. The laboratory is also often
engaged in clinical studies of emerging new pharmacological therapies for type 2
DM and obesity.
RONALD KESSLER,
Ph.D.
Professor of Health Care Policy
Harvard Medical School
Boston, Massachusetts
Ronald Kessler is a Professor of Health Care Policy
at Harvard Medical School. He completed his doctoral training in sociology at
New York University in 1975 and subsequently completed post-doctoral fellowships
at the New York State Psychiatric Institute and the University of Wisconsin
before joining the faculty at the University of Michigan as an assistant
professor in 1979. He moved from Michigan to his present position at Harvard in
1996.
Kessler is the author of over 400 publications and
the recipient of many awards for his research, which deals broadly with the
psycho-social causes and consequences of ill health. Among his more notable
awards are the Rema Lapouse Award from the American Public Health Association,
the Paul Hoch Award from the American Psychopathological Association, and the
Senior Scientist Award from the US National Institute of Mental Health. He is a
Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association and the American
Psychopathological Association and an elected member of the Institute of
Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences.
In his work in psychiatric epidemiology, Kessler is
the Principal Investigator of the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey, the first
nationally representative survey of the prevalence and correlates of psychiatric
disorders in the US, as well as of a series of follow-up surveys based on the
NCS. He is also the co-director of the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) survey
initiative, an international comparative epidemiological study of the prevalence
of mental compared to physical disorders and the societal costs of these
disorders in 25 countries around the world. The importance of these studies is
indicated by the fact that the Institute for Scientific Information recently
recognized Kessler as the most widely cited author in psychiatric epidemiology
in the world over the past ten years.
AMY
KILBOURNE, Ph.D., M.P.H.
Assistant Professor of Medicine and Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Core Faculty Member
VA Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity Research and
Promotion
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Dr. Amy Kilbourne is Assistant Professor of Medicine
and Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a Core
Faculty member within the VA Pittsburgh Center for Health Equity Research and
Promotion, a VA Health Services Research and Development Program Center of
Excellence focused on understanding and reducing health disparities, and the
University of Pittsburgh Center for Research on Health Care. Dr. Kilbourne
graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a bachelor’s degree
in molecular biology and rhetoric. She has both a Master’s Degree in
Epidemiology and a Ph.D. in Health Services from the University of California,
Los Angeles.
Dr. Kilbourne’s research goal is to improve the
quality of care and outcomes for individuals with bipolar disorder. Her
research encompasses quality of care, cost analyses, and health services
organization and financing in the context of mental health services. Her
current research combines expertise in clinical epidemiology (e.g., quality
measurement, economic analyses, and clinical interventions) and an understanding
of health care organization and financing, to develop and implement sustainable
quality improvement interventions for high cost, high burden conditions
including bipolar disorder. She has developed a body of research focused on
measuring quality of care, quality improvement through the development and
implementation of evidence-based mental health care treatment models, and
understanding the organizational factors that lead to improvements in quality of
care for patients with mental disorders. She has recently extended this work to
research focused on implementing depression care treatment models in real-world
practices and measuring and improving the quality of care for patients with
bipolar disorder. Her research applications have included the design and
implementation of treatment models for bipolar disorder in real-world settings,
multisite patient cohort studies, and implementing feasible measures of mental
health care costs, illness severity, and treatment adherence.
Dr. Kilbourne is the current recipient of an
Investigator-Initiated Merit Review (IIR 02-283-2) and a Career Development
Award (MREP: MRP 02269) from the VA Health Services Research and Development
program. She has also received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIMH,
NIA) the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to
study depression, bipolar disorder, treatment adherence, HIV, and other chronic
disorders. She currently serves as a reviewer for the VA investigator-initiated
extramural program, and presented her work on bipolar disorder and outcomes at
national and international conferences. She has authored over 30 publications
focused on depression treatment models, mood disorders and services utilization,
chronic illness outcomes, and health-related quality of life, which have
appeared in several peer-reviewed journals including Milbank Quarterly, the
Journal of General Internal Medicine, Medical Care Research and Review,
Psychiatric Services, Bipolar Disorders, and the American Journal of Geriatric
Psychiatry. In addition, she has worked closely with decision makers at
community-based primary and specialty mental health care organizations on
initiatives to improve coordination of medical and psychiatric services for
patients with bipolar disorder.
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. His recent focus has been on the primary role of excitatory processes in
the Manic-Depressive Cycle.
HELENA CHMURA KRAEMER, PH.D.
Professor of Biostatistics in Psychiatry
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Stanford University
Stanford, CA
Dr. Kraemer received her Ph.D. in Statistics from
Stanford University in 1963. She joined the faculty of the Department of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford in 1964, first on the staff and
then on the faculty. Over that period of time, she has often held courtesy
appointments either in the Division of Biostatistics, or the Department of
Statistics.
Dr. Kraemer’s primary interest is the development
and application of statistical inference methods in the behavioral aspects of
medicine. In 1964, behavior in medicine seemed limited to psychiatry, but in
the years since, behavioral issues have taken on greater importance in every
field of medicine, pediatrics, oncology, and certainly cardiology. Thus Dr.
Kraemer’s work has extended over many fields of medicine. Specifically her
interests have ranged from assessing and improving the reliability of
measurements (kappa and intraclass correlations coefficients), to assessing the
validity of measurements (for example, in medical test evaluation), to dealing
with issues of power of testing and precision of estimation given the problems
of measuring behaviors and perceptions. In recent years, she has focused on
methods in risk research, including the restructuring of methods to identify
moderators and mediators that resulted in the MacArthur model.
Dr. Kraemer was elected a fellow of the American
Statistical Association in 1987, and a member of ACNP in 1994. She was awarded
the Harvard Prize in Psychiatric Biostatistics and Epidemiology in 2001, and
elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2003.
Dr. Kraemer serves as Associate Editor or member of
the Editorial Board for journals ranging from statistics journals (Statistics in
Medicine), to psychiatry journals (Archives of General Psychiatry), to
psychology (Psychological Methods), and is a frequent reviewer for journals in
many different fields. She has also served on Study Sections as well as Ad Hoc
reviewer for NIH.
DAVID J. KUPFER,
M.D.
Thomas Detre Professor and Chiarman
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’s (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 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 thirty years, Dr. Kupfer’s research has focused primarily on the
conceptualization, diagnosis, and treatment of mood disorders. He has written
more than 890 articles, books, and book chapters that examine treatment 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. Dr. Kupfer is the Founding President of the International
Society of Bipolar Disorders.
RALPH KUPKA,
M.D., Ph.D.
Psychiatrist
Bipolar Mood Disorders Program
Altrecht Institute for Mental Health Care
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Ralph Kupka, M.D., Ph.D, received his medical and
psychiatric training at the Academic Medical Center of the University of
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and was a university teacher at the same medical
faculty from 1990-1995. He worked as a clinical and research psychiatrist at the
University Medical Center of Utrecht, the Netherlands, and is currently chief of
the residency training program at the Altrecht Institute for Mental Health Care,
a large psychiatric hospital and community mental health facility. Dr. Kupka has
a special interest in the nature and treatment of major mood disorders. He was
one of the principle investigators of the Stanley Foundation Bipolar Network, a
collaboration of seven academic centers in the United States, the Netherlands
and Germany. He received his PhD-graduation on a series of studies of rapid
cycling bipolar disorder. He authored and co-authored articles and book chapters
in Dutch and English on unipolar and bipolar mood disorders.
FOUZIA
LAGHRISSI -THODE, M.D.
Global Head of Primary Care Business Development
La Roche
Basel, Switzerland
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Fouzia Laghrissi-Thode, M.D., is the Global Head of
Primary Care Business Development in Pharma Partnering at F. Hoffmann-La Roche,
based in Basel, Switzerland. Appointed in 2003, her responsibilities include
overseeing global licensing activities in CNS, cardiovascular, metabolic and
genito-urinary disease areas. She is a member of the Neuroscience Team involved
in directing the global CNS strategy of the company.
Prior to her current role, Dr. Laghrissi-Thode was
CNS Business Development Director since 2001. She has also served as a CNS
Leader in the New Medicines Strategy Marketing Department. Between 1997 and
2000, she was assigned a Senior Clinical Research Physician in the International
Clinical Research Nervous System Department of Novartis Pharma in Basel
Switzerland. Her responsibilities included managing clinical trial programs in
Alzheimer disease, mood and psychotic disorders.
Dr. Laghrissi-Thode has held, since 1992, an
appointment as an Assistant Professor of Pyschiatry at the University of
Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, USA. 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. Her
research was recognized by the N.I.M.H. New Investigator Award and the American
Federation of Aging Research Award (AFAR).
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 board
certification in 1992.
LYDIA LEWIS
President
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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