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 Press Release 
For immediate release In sessions free and open to public, top scientists will focus on childhood disorders and new directions in mental health research NARSAD’s 19th annual New York Mental Health Symposium will take place on Friday and Saturday, October 19th and 20th, at The Times Center at 242 West 41st Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues in Manhattan. Those interested in attending are advised to reserve a place in advance by contacting NARSAD at 800-829-8289 or events@narsad.org. The symposium’s first day -- Friday the 19th, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. -- is devoted to a subject of great concern to the public, childhood mental health. Entitled “Healing Children’s Minds,” the program features presentations by five NARSAD researchers, each one a leader in his or her field. The presentations (detailed below) will be moderated by Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, M.D., of the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The symposium session on Saturday the 20th, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., will highlight “New Directions in Research,” with presentations on depression, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. (Details on the presentations follow.) The Saturday session, to be moderated by Herbert Pardes, M.D., president and CEO of New York-Presbyterian Hospital and president of NARSAD’s Scientific Council, will also feature commentary on each presentation by Jack Barchas, M.D., chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College and psychiatrist-in-chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic. NARSAD, since its inception in 1987, has awarded over 3,200 research grants totaling more than $219 million to scientists working in the United States and 26 other countries. Their research has focused on depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, anxiety disorders and childhood mental disorders. With free symposia in New York and other cities around the country, including Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, D.C., St. Louis, Sarasota and Palm Beach, NARSAD is creating important opportunities for the public to learn about the mechanisms behind mental illnesses and about researchers’ cutting-edge thinking on causes, treatments and preventions. On Friday, October 19th, following the first day of the New York Mental Health Research Symposium, NARSAD will hold its annual New York fundraising gala at the Waldorf Astoria. This year’s gala celebrates NARSAD’s 20 years of supporting groundbreaking research, and, like the Friday symposium program, is thematically dedicated to “Healing Children’s Minds.” NARSAD will give its first Children’s Mental Health Award to KaBOOM!, an organization whose mission is to make a safe, clean playground available to every child in America. NARSAD will also award its top prizes for achievement in psychiatric research at the gala to five of the foremost investigators in the world today. (Click here for more information on NARSAD’s gala and the recipients of this year’s research prizes.) Mental Health Research Symposium Friday, October 19th, 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. “Healing Children’s Minds: Childhood and Adolescent Disorders” Moderator Robert M. A. Hirschfeld, M.D. Titus H. Harris Chair; Harry K. Davis, M.D., Professor; and Chairperson, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston Presenters Karen D. Wagner, M.D., Ph.D. Marie B. Gale Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences; Director, Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston “Mood Disorders in Children: Key Insights about Depression and Bipolar Disorder” Symptoms of depression in children are similar to those in adults. Since children with depression are likely to have episodes of depression in adolescence and adulthood, it is critical that they be treated during childhood. Medications and psychotherapy have been helpful, although there has been recent controversy about the use of antidepressants in this age group. There has been an increase in the diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder in children in recent years.Yet, there are questions, including whether young children diagnosed with bipolar disorder will continue to have this disorder in adulthood. Daniel Pine, M.D. Chief , Child and Adolescent Research, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program, The National Institute of Mental Health Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health “Mood Disorders and the Brain’s Perception of Danger: What Research Teaches Us About Childhood Anxiety” Research has delineated a network of brain regions engaged during the processing of dangerous situations or stimuli, as well as differences in individual response to these stimuli that are shaped during development by interactions between genes and the environment. The most recent data from human studies using brain imaging suggests that both child and adult mood and anxiety disorders involve similar anomalies in brain structures. B. J. Casey, Ph.D., Sackler Professor and Director, Sackler Institute; Professor of Psychology, Weill Cornell Medical College “New Knowledge About the Biology and Treatment of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)” New methods, such as genetic imaging and fiber tracking techniques, are providing important knowledge about the basis of ADHD in both children and adults. These are advancing the effort to identify genetic and environmental factors that put children at risk for ADHD, information that is essential in identifying and ultimately optimizing treatments. Judith Rapoport, M.D. Chief, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health “Childhood-Onset Schizophrenia: An Update on Research, Including a New Perspective Based on Genetic Studies” This rare but severe form of schizophrenia appears to be continuous with the adult disorder. Recent studies have given us unique information about the abnormalities in brain development seen in schizophrenia. New data from whole-genome scans will be presented that show genetic abnormalities that are spontaneous -- and not seen in relatives. These findings give a new perspective on the genetics of schizophrenia. Ami Klin, Ph.D. Harris Associate Professor of Child Psychology and Psychiatry; Director, Autism Program, Yale Child Study Center, Yale University “Screening for Autism in the First Months of Life” Mechanisms of socialization are disrupted in children with autism spectrum disorders. In the past few years, research has focused on the use of eye-tracking technology to study and quantify visual engagement with the social world, and now this research involves toddlers and school-age children with autism. These techniques are also being used to study the development of social visual engagement in infants followed prospectively from birth. The goal is to devise techniques for the detection of vulnerabilities for autism in the first months of life. “New Directions in Psychiatric Research” Moderator Herbert Pardes, M.D. President and CEO, New York-Presbyterian Hospital; President, Scientific Council, NARSAD Commentator Jack Barchas, M.D. Barklie McKee Henry Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medical College; Psychiatrist-in-Chief, NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center and the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic Presenters Elisabeth Binder, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Departments of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Human Genetics, Emory University School of Medicine; Research Group Leader, Max-Planck Institute of Psychiatry, Munich “Childhood Trauma and Stress-Related Illness” Early-life trauma, including childhood abuse, has been shown to increase stress sensitivity. This is accompanied by enduring abnormalities in the response of the stress hormone system to even minor stressors. Dr. Binder seeks to determine whether childhood trauma has long-term consequences on the composition of the stress hormone system and whether small changes can help explain the vulnerability of adult survivors of childhood trauma to a series of stress-related psychiatric and medical problems. Carole Weaver, Ph.D. Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Diego “Neural Communication Malfunction and its Role in Bipolar Disorder and Alzheimer’s Disease” In order to communicate with the rest of the brain, neurons must extend long, thin projections called axons to contact neighboring neurons. This uniquely extended architecture makes neurons especially reliant on an intracellular transport system. The transport of material within axons by molecular “motors” is critical to the proper function of this system. Dr. Weaver is studying a molecule (GSK3) that helps regulate transport. Mounting evidence points to GSK3 as a central player in both bipolar disorder and Alzheimer’s disease, although it isn’t yet clear how it contributes at the molecular level. Holly A. Swartz, M.D. Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh Medical School; Attending Psychiatrist, Depression and Manic Depression Prevention Program, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic “A Novel Psychiatric Treatment for Bipolar II Disorder” Bipolar II disorder is a common and disabling psychiatric illness defined by recurrent episodes of depression and hypomania. It is not, however, simply a milder form of bipolar I disorder, but rather, is associated with significant rates of rapid mood cycling, suicide and increased psychosocial impairment. Currently, there are no established or approved treatments. Dr. Swartz will describe an innovative form of psychotherapy for treatment for bipolar II disorder that she is testing called interpersonal and social rhythm therapy. Kameel M. Karkar, M.D. Postdoctoral Fellow, University of California, San Francisco “Gene Mutations, Abnormal Brain Development, and the Onset of Schizophrenia and Epilepsy” Many neurobiological disorders, such as some types of epilepsy and schizophrenia, result from abnormal brain development. There is evidence that these disorders, and possibly others, result from abnormal formation of brain interneuron networks. Interneurons represent one of two main neuronal types in the brain; they mediate inhibitory neurotransmission. Dr. Karkar is studying mutant mice with abnormal interneurons in order to better understand mechanisms that govern interneuron development in normal and disease states. Daphne J. Holt, M.D., Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School; Associate Director, First Episode and Early Psychosis Program, Massachusetts General Hospital “Understanding the Causes of Delusion and Finding Reliable Tests for Psychosis” Delusions are fixed, false beliefs that are firmly sustained despite obvious proof to the contrary. They are one of the most common symptoms of schizophrenia. Although the false beliefs of delusions appear to result from errors in logic, clear deficits in logic or reasoning have not been found in delusional patients; instead there is evidence of impairment in the ability to accurately assess the emotional significance of information in the environment. Dr. Holt’s research seeks to determine whether the brain regions responsible for performing emotional evaluations in healthy people are functioning abnormally in patients with schizophrenia. |
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