April 22, 2007
Second Annual NARSAD and Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Mental Health Symposium and Benefit Dinner
Boston, Mass.

The symposium featured presentations by four scientists who have received NARSAD grants for their research. The presenters and their topics included:

Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, M.D., Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

What We Have Learned From a Long-term Study of Psychiatric Disorders, From Toddler Stage to Adulthood

Dr. Rosenbaum has led an extraordinary 14-year study of a large sample of children at risk for panic disorder, who are being compared with children at risk for depression and children without vulnerability to mood or anxiety disorders. By following children from toddlerhood into their adulthood, Dr. Rosenbaum and colleagues hope to discern risk and protective factors; identify disease markers for subsequent genetic and neuroimaging studies; and design and study early interventions.

The Genetics of Bipolar Disorder

Lack of knowledge of the genes responsible for disease risk impedes our understanding of the mechanism of bipolar disorder and efforts to develop new drug treatments for it. Dr. Sklar explained how the young science of genomics has opened new vistas. With these developments as background, her talk will describe current laboratory approaches to the study of bipolar disorder.

Using New Imaging Technologies to Determine How Adolescent and Adult Depression Differ

Advanced scanning technologies have provided researchers an invaluable window into the neurobiology of depression in adults. Virtually nothing, however, has been reported on the functional neurobiology of depression in adolescents. Dr. Teicher discussed the promise of two new technologies pioneered at McLean Hospital -- near-infrared spectroscopy and T2-relaxometry -- that are helping to distinguish differences between adolescent and adult depression.

Is There A Correlation Between Schizophrenia and the Vitamin Folate?

Dr. Goff has found that people with schizophrenia have low blood folate levels. Folate is a water-soluble vitamin found in leafy green vegetables that helps the body form red blood cells and aids in the formation of genetic material within every body cell. He hypothesizes that folate levels could be used to predict the intensity of disease symptoms such as apathy, withdrawal, and diminished emotional expression, as well as some aspects of cognitive impairment in affected individuals.