Craig H. Bailey, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 816, Tel. 543-5404
Research on the morphological basis of the synaptic plasticity underlying simple forms of learning and memory in Aplysia, including subcellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie the induction and stabilization of changes in synaptic architecture associated with the storage of long-term memory.
Hector R. Bird, M.D., P.I. Annex, Room 222, Tel. 543-5191
Epidemiologic studies on child and adolescent populations evaluating rates of mental disorders in the community, risk factors of child and adolescent psychopathology, and the development of antisocial behavior in Puerto Rican children.
Mary Bongiovi-Garcia, M.D.,/Ph.D., Tel. 543-5636
Director, General Clinical Research Unit (GCRU), an inpatient research unit admitting patients who participate in studies in: neuroscience of suicide and depression; efficacy and cognitive effects of electroconvulsive therapy; treatment of anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa; biology and treatment of depressed and suicidal adolescents; physiology and behavior in context of substance abuse.
Gerard Bruder, Ph.D., PI Unit 50, Tel. 543-5468,
Email: bruderg@pi.cpmc.columbia.edu
Studies of cognitive and neurophysiological function in affective disorders and schizophrenia using electrophysiologic and behavioral measures to study right-left brain laterality and neurocognitive function in depressive and schizophrenic disorders.
Alex Carballo-Dieguez, Ph.D., PI Room 1020-3, Tel. 543-5261
Research on determinants of sexual risk behavior, especially among Latino men who have sex with men (LMSM). Adherence to anti HIV-combination therapy in serodiscordant couples. Acceptability of topical microbicides for vaginal and rectal use.
Patricia Cohen, Ph.D., 100 Haven Avenue, Tel. 740-1460
Studies related to the prevalence and course of mental disorders over the life span, largely based on a random sample of children and their mothers first studied a quarter century ago. This Children in the Community study examines the prevalence and course of mental disorders and associated problems, including personality disorder, risks for these disorders and factors affecting long-term outcome in the sample, their offspring, and their mothers.
Thomas B. Cooper, PI Room 2711 Tel. 845-398-5442
Research on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs of use and abuse. Biochemical pharmacological studies of metabolism, mechanisms of action and interaction of such drugs. Neurotransmitter and metabolite and neuroendocrine response to challenge paradigms using psychotrophic drugs. Development of analytical methodology for assay of psychotrophic drugs, drug metabolites and compounds of interest in biological psychiatry.
Francine Cournos, M.D., PI Room 4813, Tel. 543-5412
Washington Heights Community Service Division conducts studies on the assessment of the effectiveness of HIV/AIDS training for mental health providers; prevention of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases among people with severe mental illness; teaching money management skills to disadvantaged patients with severe mental illness; the effectiveness of smoking-cessation programs for people with schizophrenia, and the management of patients with the combined diagnoses of schizophrenia and substance abuse.
Bruce Dohrenwend, Ph.D., 100 Haven, 19H, Tel. 795-0211
Research on social and psychological factors (life events, personal dispositions, situational contexts, and social positions) in major depression; role of social, psychological, and family history factors in the etiology of types of psychopathology that are inversely related to social class; group differences in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and co-morbid psychiatric disorders in U.S. Vietnam veterans.
Miriam Ehrensaft, PH.D., PI Annex Room 205, Tel. 543-6828
Studies on adolescent conduct problems, particularly regarding the possible contribution of conduct problems to the risk of becoming involved in violent romantic relationships.
Anke A. Ehrhardt, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 219, Tel. 543-5432
The HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, under the direction of Dr. Ehrhardt, includes studies on prevention of the sexual transmission of HIV with different populations; treatment, adherence and psychosocial adjustment to HIV infection; sexual risk behavior and behavior change. Dr. Ehrhardt also conducts psychoendocrine research within the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry focusing on the effects of prenatal and postnatal sex hormones on sexual behavior and gender in childhood and adolescents. She is the Program Director of a newly funded postdoctoral training program in human sexuality research in collaboration with the School of Public Health.
Jean Endicott, Ph.D., PI Room 341D, Tel. 543-5536
Research on course and outcome of mood disorders; types of changes in mood and behavior during different phases of the menstrual cycle and during the pre and post-partum periods; treatment of severe premenstrual dysphoria; genetics of bipolar disorder with mania and with hypo-mania; and comorbidity between mood and substance use disorders.
L. Erlenmeyer-Kimling, Ph.D., D. Sci.(Hon.) PI Annex, Room 304, Tel. 543-5475
Research in the following areas: Longitudinal follow-up studies from childhood through adolescence and into adulthood of offspring of schizophrenic and depressed parents; assessment of biological, biobehavioral , and personality variables as potential indicators of a genetic liability to schizophrenia; genetic linkage studies of schizophrenia using DNA markers in affected sibling pairs and extended families; sensory gating studies in schizophrenic patients and their first-degree relatives.
Theresa M. Exner, Ph.D., 602 West 168th Street, Apt. 21, Tel. 923-7281
Conducts HIV prevention research with women via street outreach and in health care settings. Provides consultation to researchers and community organizations on project development and assessment of sexual risk behavior.
Prudence Fisher, PI Annex Room 211A, Tel. 543-5357
Development of the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC), by writing and editing questions for four iterations of the interview, conducting studies to test the interview, and co-editing several derivative versions. She has also written users' manuals and designed training materials. Dr. Fisher has also participated in the development and testing of the C-GAS, the non-clinician C-GAS, the Columbia Impairment Scale, DARRYL (a cartoon measure for PTSD), and, most recently, is overseeing the development of the Columbia K-SADS.
Richard W. Foltin, Ph.D., PI 3 Room 3707, Tel. 543-5717
Research on antecedents and consequences of substance use in human and non-human research participants, including development and evaluation of medications for the treatment of cocaine abuse, physiological and behavioral correlates of cocaine abstinence and cocaine use, new approaches to opiate detoxification and pharmacological and behavioral treatment, analgesia and opiate dependence, sex differences in drug effects and vulnerability to drug abuse, implications of drug use on workforce safety and productivity, marijuana dependence and withdrawal, and food intake and the neurochemical mechanisms involved in hunger and satiety. Research with non-humans includes modeling and treating the motivational changes involved in drug use and dependence.
Abby J. Fyer, M.D., PI Room 5812, Tel. 543-5372
Research on heritability of anxiety disorders including genetic studies of panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety disorder, development of endophenotypes (e.g., variability in fear conditioning, affective memory bias, respiratory variability) for genetic studies of anxiety.
Claude Ghez, M.D., PI Annex, Room 821, Tel. 543-5398
Research examines the mechanisms of trajectory control and motor learning in reaching and other hand movements combining psychophysics and imaging techniques. Our work focuses on the learning of internal representations of extrinsic space and of dynamic models of limb properties, as well as on the learning of motor sequences in normals, and in patients with cortical, basal ganglia and cerebellar pathology. In addition we are exploring the use of auditory substitution of proprioceptive input for learning limb dynamics.
Alexander Glassman, M.D., PI Room 2726, Tel. 543-5750
Research in the relationship between depression and cardiovascular morbidity and mortality; efficacy of various antidepressants in patients with late-life depression; safety of antidepressant drugs in depressed patients with cardiovascular disease; pharmacological and psychological treatment of eating disorders; nicotine dependence, with special interest in its relationship with depression and other co-morbidity.
Robert A. Glick, M.D., PI Room 1709, Tel. 927-5000
The Psychoanalytic Center has research projects including the Psychodynamic Psychotherapy Skills Test to evaluate psychiatric residents' skills in psychodynamic psychotherapy; post-termination contact study, examining post-termination contact between analysands and analysts, the frequency and nature of these contacts, and the analysts' attitudes about them; psychotherapy and medication use by residents during their psychiatric residency, exploring whether there is a stigma from other residents, and the educational benefit associated with being in treatment during training; World Trade Center Tragedy/Analytic Technique Adjustment Questionnaire, determining whether faculty are adjusting their technique in the wake of the WTC tragedy; neurocognition and borderline personality features assessing cognition and executive function and their relation to affective dysfunction in borderline personality disorder; Post-Graduation Career Paths Study/Post-Graduation Questionnaire, exploring factors that lead analysts to choose different career paths after graduation; STIPO Questionnaire (Structural Interview of Personality Organization) /Affective Disorders Study assessing personality organization relevant to psychoanalysis.
Madelyn Gould, Ph.D., M.P.H., PI Annex, Room 216, Tel. 543-5329
Research in our Community Suicide Research Unit includes: risk factors for teenage suicide; various aspects of suicide contagion, including cluster suicides, the impact of the media on suicide, and the effect of a peer's suicide on fellow students; suicide postvention programs in schools, the effect of suicide screening programs; and the utility of telephone crisis services for teenagers. Other studies involve pharmaco-epidemiology.
Laurence L. Greenhill, M.D., PI Room 2307, Tel. 543-5340
Research includes a nationwide study to evaluate the impact of methylphenidate started during years 3-6 in preschool children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; the safety and efficacy of new psychotropic medications for children and adolescents; a collaborative five-year, follow-up study of children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder treated 8 years previously with different treatment modalities; and a variety of pharmaceutical industry sponsored, randomized clinical trials of new psychotropic medications for the treatment of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders.
Barry Gurland, M.D., Stroud Center - Center for Geriatrics,
100 Haven Ave., Tower 3-30F, Tel. 781-0600
Study of the nature, measurements and uses of concepts of quality of life with special reference to mental disorders of elders and their psychiatric treatment.
Robert Hawkins, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 608, Tel. 543-5244
Cellular and behavioral studies of associative and nonassociative learning in Aplysia and long-term potentiation in hippocampus.
Ren?© Hen, Ph.D., Center for Neurobiology and Behavior,
Columbia University, 1051 Riverside Drive, Tel. 543-5328
Serotonin is a neuromodulator that has been implicated in normal mood control as well as in a number of mood disorders such as anxiety, depression and aggressiveness. To model such disorders we have introduced mutations in various components of the serotonergic system by generating knockout mice that lack either the 5-HT1A or the 5-HT1B receptor. These mutant mice display a panoply of contrasting phenotypes. While the 5-HT1B knockout mice are more aggressive and less anxious than wild-type mice, the 5-HT1A knockout mice appear to be less agressive and more anxious than the wild-types. We are currently using these two mouse models to identify the neural circuits that are responsible for their opposite emotional states by exploring the respective contributions of the presynaptic autoreceptors and the postsynaptic heteroreceptors by reexpressing the 5-HT1A and 5-HT1B receptors selectively in the raphe nuclei or in postsynaptic structures such as the hippocampus and amygdala.
Kimberly Hoagwood, PI Annex Room 206, Tel. 543-6131
Research projects on academic and behavioral outcomes for children with psychiatric disorders in special education. She is a collaborator on the Multi-Modal Treatment for ADHD, focusing on engagement with clinical and school services. She is also a collaborator on the Patterns of Care Study, a study of clinical need and use of services among children and adolescents involved in multiple service systems.
Susan E. Hodge, D.Sc., PI Annex, Room 106, Tel. 543-5606
Mathematical and statistical modeling of human genetic diseases and psychiatric genetics. Methods for family studies, including linkage analysis, segregation analysis and association studies.
Christina W. Hoven, Dr.PH, PI Room 5218, Tel. 543-5688,
Email: hoven@child.cpmc.columbia.edu
Child psychiatric epidemiology, including assessment of psychopathology related to terrorism, such as the attack on the World Trade Center, and other forms of violence. Investigations of the socio-ecological determinants of childhood psychopathology, and service use from an individual and service system perspective. Research on early identification in juvenile justice, child welfare, schools and primary care. Currently evaluating the development of two large systems of care (NYC and Westchester County, NY) for SED children, as part of two multi-site studies.
Joseph Jaffe, M.D., PI Room 245, Tel. 543-5634
Research on the development of biological rhythms that serve as the infrastructure of human communication, including the developmental importance of rhythmic coupling between mothers and their 4 month-old infants during the earliest forms of play. Evidence is accumulating that the presence and patterning of these early coupled behaviors constitute necessary prelinguistic experiences needed to support the emergence of the phonetic, syntactic and semantic properties of language itself. They also appear to be vital for both cognitive and social development during the first year of life. Interest in neural networks and other mathematical models is especially welcome.
Peter Jensen, Room PI Room 205B, 543-5334
Studies focused on implementing evidence-based assessment and treatment approaches in pediatric primary-care, mental health, and school settings. Each of these research programs has two major components - the strategic dissemination of scientifically based assessment and treatment practices to carefully chosen provider groups, using methods known to change provider behavior, and testing the impact of these programs on providers, systems of care, and youth themselves.
Denise B. Kandel, Ph.D., 60 Haven Ave., B-4, Room 413, Tel. 304-7080
Epidemiology, antecedents and consequences of drug use and dependence, in particular tobacco; ethnic differences in smoking; effects of prenatal tobacco exposure on offspring conduct problems and substance use; adolescent problem behaviors and psychosocial development; depression in adolescence and early adulthood; interpersonal influences on behavior; cross-cultural studies.
Eric R. Kandel, M.D., PI Annex, Room 669, Tel. 543-5204
Howard Hughes Medical Institute: This laboratory is concerned with the molecular mechanisms of simple forms of long term memory in the invertebrate Aplysia and more complex forms in genetically-modified mice.
Meg S. Kaplan, Ph.D., Audubon Clinic 3rd Floor, Tel. 740-7330
Studies of evaluation and treatment of adolescent sexual offenders. The Sexual Behavior Clinic provides outpatient treatment based on a cognitive-behavioral model for adolescent sex offenders. Students will also have the opportunity to observe evaluations of adult sex offenders at inpatient psychiatric facilities performed by Dr. Richard Krueger.
Herbert D. Kleber, M.D., PI Room 3713, Tel. 543-5570
Directs the Division on Substance Abuse. Research is being carried out in: understanding the mechanisms for cocaine abuse using a human laboratory model; testing potential treatment medications in the laboratory and clinic for general cocaine abusers and those with other psychiatric disorders; development of a laboratory model of smoked heroin in heroin abusers to test potential treatment medications; assessment of a longacting injectable blocker for heroin; assessment of imaging techniques in cocaine abusers; evaluation of anxiolytics in vulnerable subpopulations of women; the workplace implications of drug use; clinical comparison of various rapid opiate detoxification methods; methods including rapid detox under general anesthesia; the biopsychology of human feeding behavior; the assessment of drug self-administration and behavioral economics in non-human primates; a novel model of animal drug craving. Evaluation in human laboratory of marijuana effects and withdrawal symptoms and testing in clinical setting of potential treatment medications for marijuana dependence. Research related to sex differences in response to painful stimuli and effects of opiates on pain sensitivity and the relationship to gonadal hormones.
Donald F. Klein, M.D., PI Annex, Room L224, Tel. 543-6685
The Depression Evaluation Service, Anxiety Disorders Clinic, and Biological Studies Unit comprise the Therapeutics Division, headed by Dr. Donald Klein. The Depression Evaluation Service is a research clinic whose major goal is identification of different subtypes of depressive disorders and specific psychopharmacological treatment for these subtypes. Major studies include: the effects of antidepressant drugs on patients with major depression; HIV, and dysthymia; alcoholism and its relationship to depression; psychopharmacologic intervention for cocaine abusers and the relationship between depression, drug abuse and HIV status.
Research on the biological, genetic, and treatment aspects of anxiety disorders is undertaken by the Anxiety Disorders Clinic. Studies include: the role of serotonin dysregulation and other psychobiological factors in obsessive-compulsive disorder; efficacy of different drugs for social phobias; a family study of anxiety disorder patients and the role of intergenerational transmission; and a pedigree study in panic and obsessive-compulsive disorders. The Biological Studies Unit has studies of metabolic disorders in psychiatric illness using computerized monitors of resting energy expenditure, as well as lactate infusion and CO2 inhalation studies, and sleep studies related to respiration in panic patients.
John Koester, Ph.D., PI Kolb Research Annex, Room 828, Tel. 543-5239,
Email: jdk3@columbia.edu
Research is related to the study of the cellular analysis of the neural circuit that controls autonomic function in the mollusk Aplysia. A major emphasis is placed on the role of biophysical properties of neurons in generating behavior, and how these properties are determined by a neuron's complement of ion channels.
Donald S. Kornfeld, M.D., PH 16C, Tel. 305-9985
Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry/Behavioral Medicine. Studies of the psychophysiological autonomic mechanisms controlling cardiovascular systems, stress responses and their relation to cardiac and anxiety disorder; clinical studies of psychiatric aspects of organ transplantation; psychiatric aspects of the reproductive cycle in women; outcome research on the effects of behavior therapy and anxiety disorders, smoking cessation and other self-injurious behavior.
Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, PI Unit 4, Tel. 543-5301
Director of the Lieber Center for Schizophrenia Research. Research focuses on the neurobiology, pharmacology, and treatment of schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders, including understanding the natural history and phenomenology of schizophrenia and its pathophysiological basis, and the mechanism of action and clinical effectiveness of antipsychotic drugs.
Michael R. Liebowitz, M.D., PI Room 3726, Tel. 543-5370
Studies of Anxiety Disorders including diagnostic, psychobiological, family, genetic, neuroimaging and treatment studies of patients with panic disorder, agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, social phobia, simple phobia, hypochondriasis, Lyme disease, mixed anxiety and depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Treatment studies look at experimental medications as well as new uses for marketed drugs, and also compare psychotherapies and medication treatments. More comprehensive ways of assessing disability are also under study; Cross-cultural studies in an Hispanic Clinic that is currently studying anxiety and depression in monolingual Hispanic patients; Brain imaging studies in a variety of anxiety disorders using radioligands to identify abnormalities in brain chemistry. New initiatives include the recognition of anxiety and depressive disorders in Hispanic patients in primary care settings; increased compliance with treatment in Hispanic patients by understanding personal as well as cultural factors that impede such compliance; use of cognitive behavioral approaches to augment the benefits of medication treatment of anxiety disorders as well as prevent relapse after medication is discontinued; the role of traumatic grief and its treatment in understanding and helping individuals suffering from PTSD as a result of traumatic events such as the attack on the World Trade Center or the 2001 airplane crash in the Rockaways.
Christopher Lucas, PI Annex Room 208, Tel. 543-5358
Studies on the value of psychiatric assessment using computers, and the development and testing of a brief screening instrument, the DISC Predictive Scales. He is one of the authors of the NIMHDISC and has regularly consulted with NIIH on assessment instruments to be used in several large-scale national surveys of child mental health.
Chara Malapani, M.D./Ph.D., PI Unit 50, Tel. 543-5718 (office),
543-5715(assistant)
Email: cm302@columbia.edu
Research in the neural and functional processes of learning and memory for time, in both animals and humans through experimental analysis of how temporal control in conditioning ties mnemonic and dynamic learning effects to basic timing mechanisms known to underlie many nervous system functions. Coupled to the behavioral approach are research lines aimed at understanding how damage at specific brain areas and neuro-chemical systems distort distinct psychological processes inherent in temporal cognition, such as storage, retrieval and decision mechanisms. Comparative animal and human research is conducted with a combination of behavioral, cognitive, physiological and imaging techniques in normal and brain diseased subjects. Current work focuses on isolating the neural substrates underlying those distinctive processes by developing and/or using existing animal models of human diseases (i.e., Parkinson's disease, Schizophrenia), known to involve damage at the basal ganglia-frontal cortex circuitry and dopaminergic and/or glutamatergic systems.
Dolores Malaspina, M.D., P.P.H., PI Unit 6, Tel. 543-5619
Research in epidemiological birth cohorts and clinical samples to examine the roles of genetic, environmental, and gene-environment interactions in the risk and expression of schizophrenia.
J. John Mann, M.D., PI Room 2917, Tel. 543-6774
Studies are conducted in human and nonhuman primates of the role of serotonergic and other monoamine systems in the pathogenesis of major depression and modulation of risk for suicidal and violent behavior. Approaches involve biochemical, cell morphometric and molecular genetic analysis of postmortem brain tissue as well as functional brain imaging of cases in vivo using positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.
Eric Marcus, M.D., PI, Room 1303S, Tel. 543-5552
The Undergraduate Education Division, in addition to its major responsibilities for medical student teaching, also pursues research in: the unconscious professionalization process of medical student education by gathering dreams medical students have about their medical training and correlating this material with stress surveys and real life experience in medical training in an effort to develop a general theory of medical education and guide specific curriculum development; exploration of medical student career choices; and the impact of innovations in the substance abuse curriculum.
Heino F.L. Meyer-Bahlburg, Dr. Rer. Nat., PI Annex, Room 220, Tel. 543-5299
Research in the areas of developmental psychoendocrinology emphasizing the effects of prenatal and postnatal sex hormones on sex and gender-related behaviors; intersexuality; gender identity disorders of childhood and adolescence; development of sexual risk behavior in childhood; sexual risk behavior and dysfunctions of adults with HIV disease; and the development of assessment methods in the area of sex and gender.
Lisa Miller, PI Room 2706, Tel. 543-5588
Dr. Miller directs ongoing studies on the developmental path of religion and its protective effects against depression and substance use among adolescents, including a longitudinal study in high schools and a genetic-epidemiologic study of the intergenerational transmission of religion; the conduct of clinical trials on improved access to treatment for depression in adolescents and mothers who are underserved; and a method of improving access to treatment for pregnant adolescents.
Laura Mufson, Ph.D., PI Room 2409, Tel. 543-5561
Clinical trial on the treatment of depressed adolescents with interpersonal psychotherapy; effectiveness of using IPT-A in school-based health clinics; modification of IPT-A as a group modality; exploring use of interpersonal psychotherapy with suicidal adolescents, and depressed mothers with depressed offspring; standardization of assessments for anxious and depressed children and adolescents.
Michael M. Myers, Ph.D., PI Room 4911C, Tel. 543-5697,
Email: mmm3@columbia.edu
Research on the processes involved in the development of behavior and its underlying biological systems, including how natural events associated with parent-infant interactions, and stressful experiences such as changes in diet or exposure to drugs, interact with genetic mechanisms to alter the course of normal development. Projects in the department are multidisciplinary, ranging from targeted gene deletion of neurotransmitter receptors in mice to the effects of prenatal experience on human fetal and infant behavior.
Bradley S. Peterson, M.D. PI Room 2407, Tel 212-543-5330
Director of MRI Research in the Department and Director of Neuropsychiatry within the Division of Child Psychiatry. Studies of brain-behavior relationships in health and illness across the lifespan, using anatomical, functional, and other MRI methodologies. Conditions that have been the focus of his work include Tourette syndrome, Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Bipolar illness, Autism, preterm birth, and Schizophrenia.
Ning Qian, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 525, Tel. 543-6931 x600
Visual psychophysical experiments to study computational neuroscience with an emphasis on stereo vision, motion perception, motion-stereo integration, and visual perceptual learning.
Robert Remien, Ph.D., PI Room 353, Tel. 543-5375,
Email: RHR1@columbia.edu
Within the HIV Center for Clinical and Behavioral Studies, research on: psychiatric and psychosocial correlates of HIV disease progression among gay men and injected drug-using men and women; psychosocial determinants of survival and quality of life among HIV/AIDS long-term survivors; sexual risk behavior and psychological functioning among HIV serodiscordant couples; and determinants of medical adherence and health-care behaviors among people living with HIV in the United States and Brazil.
Ronald Rieder, M.D., PI Room 1301C, Tel. 543-5553
The Postgraduate Education Division directs residency training and the research fellowship programs in schizophrenia, affective, anxiety, eating and personality disorders. The Division thus functions in collaboration with all other research divisions with regard to research training. Those interested in research training in the Department may consult with the Director regarding appropriate placement and funding. Current research within the Division is on the development of a test of psychodynamic psychotherapy skills.
Lorna Role, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 806, Tel: 543-5929, Fax: 795-0700
Biophysical, electrophysiological, and molecular studies of normal and pathological aspects of neuronal signaling; cholinergic systems in the CNS.
Richard N. Rosenthal, M.D., St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Tel. 523-5366
The Department of Psychiatry at St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center offers extensive clinical research activities in: Pharmacologic clinical trials in schizophrenia; service facilitation for substance abusing HIV patients; group motivational enhancement in substance abuse treatment; pharmacologic clinical trials in dysthymia; pharmacologic clinical trials in psychotic depression; treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in cocaine-dependent women; genetic vulnerability for opioid dependence in methadone-maintained patients; treatment of comorbid depression and cocaine abuse in methadone-maintained patients.
Harold Sackeim, Ph.D., P.I. Annex, Room 423, Tel. 543-5855
Clinical research efforts in the areas of major depressive disorder, acute mania, Alzheimer's Disease, and normal aging. Major components of the division investigate treatment outcome, clinical phenomenology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology and/or biochemistry. In collaboration with the Department of Neurology and Memory Disorders Clinic, a number of studies on Alzheimer's Disease are underway.
Suzanne Salzinger, Ph.D., 21 Audubon, Room 319, Tel. 740-7275
Research on child maltreatment: follow-up investigation of behavioral, social and mental health outcomes of adolescents who were physically abused in preadolescence. Research on the effects of community violence on children and adolescents: a three-year longitudinal study of its effects and the effects of selected mediating and moderating factors on middle-school children's involvement in violence as either perpetrator or victim, on their mental health status and on their academic functioning.
Samuel Schacher, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 826, Tel. 543-5292
Using a model cell culture system, this group is studying how regulation of post-transcriptional processing of mRNA (splicing, distribution, stability and local translation) contributes to the formation of specific synapses and the capacity of those synapses to express long-term synaptic plasticity.
David Shaffer, M.D., PI Annex, Room 221, Tel. 543-5948
Director of the "Research Training in Child Psychiatry" post-doctoral training program, and Principal Investigator of the NIMH-sponsored Intervention Research Center. Studies on adolescent suicide and on the measurement and classification of child psychiatric disorders. Suicide studies include analysis of data from a large, controlled, epidemiological psychological-autopsy study of adolescents who committed suicide in the New York Metropolitan area during the period 1984-1986; a family aggregation study to determine patterns of psychiatric illness in probands identified in the epidemiological study; and evaluation of school-curriculum-based suicide-prevention programs in different parts of the United States; and a case-finding study to screen and follow up high school students at risk for suicide.
Steven Siegelbaum, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 616, Tel. 543-5245
Molecular mechanisms of ion channel gating by cyclic nucleotides. Long-term synaptic plasticity and rhythm generation in the mammalian brain.
Andrew E. Skodol, M.D., PI Room 6004, Tel. 543-6247
Collaborative longitudinal study of personality disorders, systematically evaluating and re-evaluating individuals with personality disorders over a multi-year follow-up period.
Richard P. Sloan, Ph.D., PH 11 Stem, 305-8423
Research areas in the Behavioral Medicine Program include studies of cardiovascular psychophysiology examining autonomic links between psychological factors and heart disease, psychosocial oncology projects evaluating the impact of cancer treatment on neuropsychological outcomes, cognitive behavioral interventions studying the impact of non-pharmacologic interventions to reducing dependence of older anxious adults on benzodiazepines, and maternal and fetal examinations of the links between maternal mood states and fetal neurodevelopment.
Robert L. Spitzer, M.D., PI Room 349, Tel. 543-5524
Chief of the Biometrics Research Department, focused on the development of standardized procedures for making psychiatric diagnoses according to specified diagnostic criteria. These procedures have been incorporated into a variety of structured interview instruments as well as self report measures, widely used in the assessment of psychiatric patients, in community studies and in primary care settings. Recent work has included self-report questionnaires specifically designed for the assessment of primary care and obstetrical/gynecology patients. A project has started to compare the clinical utility of three alternate dimensional systems of personality disorder assessment.
Zena Stein, M.A., M.B., B.Ch., Sergievsky Center, PH 19-112, Tel. 305-9081
Current interests are on the determinants of trisomic conceptions: factors during pregnancy (diet, medications) and the intrapartum period (circumstances and type of delivery) on the health of HIV infected women, and on transmission of infection to offspring, effect of infant nutrition on morbidity and mortality of HIV infected infants, role of breast feeding and of supplemented diets, among offspring of HIV infected women. Genomic factors as predictors of morbidity and mortality among HIV infected infants, use of chemical (microbicides) and physical (female condoms) barriers to HIV infection.
Elmer L. Struening, Ph.D., 100 Haven Ave., Tower 2, Suite 31D, Tel. 928-0631
Research on the relationship of anxiety disorders and smoking history.
Ezra Susser, M.D., Dr. P.H., 600 W. 168th St., PH 18-119, Tel. 342-2133
Head of the Epidemiology of Brain Disorders Department and Chair of the Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Epidemiology. His research includes prenatal risk factors for schizophrenia, long-term course and other aspects of schizophrenia and homelessness. He also conducts trials of HIV sexual risk reduction and rehabilitation intervention for patients with
schizophrenia.
Michael Terman, Ph.D., PI Unit 50, Tel. 543-5712,
Email: mt12@columbia.edu
Chronobiology of psychiatric disturbance, including seasonal affective disorder, chronic depression, depression during pregnancy and insomnia. Clinical trials of timed light exposure, negative air ionization and melatonin. Field trials of timed light exposure as a countermeasure to jet lag. Basic research on the circadian timing system and its response to modulated light cycles, with emphasis on day/night behavioral organization in rodents.
B. Timothy Walsh, M.D., PI Room 2306, Tel. 543-5752
Director of the Eating Disorders Unit, an inpatient and outpatient service, conducting clinical research studies of the efficacy of psychotherapeutic and psychopharmacological treatments for children and adults with bulimia nervosa, anorexia nervosa and binge eating disorder. In addition, basic studies of underlying changes in physiology, psychology and behavior are underway.
Gail A. Wasserman, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 2410, Tel. 543-5296
Research on the origins of child behavior problems and antisocial behavior, including interrelationships among family and individual factors and child psychopathology; the impact of comprehensive and reliable assessments of mental health in incarcerated juveniles, the impact of exposures to prenatal cocaine and to environmental metals on development and improving access to mental health assessments in juvenile justice settings.
Myrna Weissman, Ph.D., PI Annex, Room 127A, Tel. 543-5880
Genetic studies including linkage analysis of large extended pedigrees with panic disorder and a sibpair study of early onset recurrent depression. Studies of offspring at high risk for depression and anxiety disorder; studies of depressed children grown up, and a study of psychiatric illness in primary care patients.
Agnes Whitaker, M.D., PI Room 2521, Tel. 543-5286
Research on the contribution of perinatal brain injury to behavioral outcome in low birthweight infants; autoimmune mechanisms in O.C.D. childhood psychopathology; epidemiology of eating disorders in adolescents.
Ping Wu, Old PI Room 1312, Tel. 543-5190
Research on the co-occurrence of substance abuse and internalizing disorders in youth; adolescent depression and mental health service utilization; and adolescent service-use patterns for alcohol- and drug-related problems; a follow-up study of adolescents from the samhsa Vulnerable Populations Study.
Gary K. Zammit, Ph.D., Sleep Disorders Institute, SLRHC, Tel. 523-1700
Phase II-IV clinical trials of sedative-hypnotic medications used in the treatment of insomnia, as well as other CNS active compounds. He is actively involved in the development of biomedical devices, including photic systems for the delivery of bright light to patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), and novel drug delivery systems.