Center for Psychopharmacologic Research
And Treatment in the News.....
June 4, 2013
Newsmaker: Rothschild dispels antidepressant myths
Psychiatric News features APA annual meeting highlights
In a special issue rounding up highlights from the recent annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association (APA), Psychiatric News featured UMass Medical School depression expert Anthony Rothschild, MD. Dr. Rothschild, the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Chair in Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry, led a workshop focused on debunking common myths surrounding antidepressants.
Antidepressants “really work” and do not “cause suicide,” said Rothschild. He referred clinicians to his most recent book, The Evidence-based Guide to Antidepressant Medications, for further details on the benefits and risks of antidepressants, including guidelines for prescribing to special populations such as children and adolescents, geriatric patients, and pregnant and lactating women.
Read the full story, “Expert Sets Record Straight on Antidepressant Myths,” in the May 18 issue of Psychiatric News.
May 21, 2013
Early Career Achievement in Science and Health Award
Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Seven women were honored at the 13th Annual Women’s Faculty Awards Luncheon, celebrating excellence in community service, education, science and health, patient care and mentorship. The event was held May 20 at UMass Medical School.
The Women’s Faculty Committee sponsors the awards, which were presented following the keynote presentation “Mentoring and Leadership on the Journey” from Jean King, PhD, professor of psychiatry.
Expert Sets Record Straight on Antidepressant Myths
Antidepressants do “really work” and do not “cause suicide,” said Anthony Rothschild, M.D., at APA’s 2013 annual meeting today during a discussion of his second book in the Evidence-Based Guides series, The Evidence-Based Guide to Antidepressant Medications (American Psychiatric Publishing, 2012). Rothschild is the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Endowed Chair and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
For more on this please see http://www.psychnews.org/update/report2_AM13_8.html
April 19,2013
Depression expert calls deep brain stimulation results promising
Rothschild compares unblinded and double-blinded studies for treatment-resistant depression | By Sandra Gray | April 19, 2013 |
| UMass Medical School Communications |
The remarkable results of a recent clinical trial for patients with treatment-resistant depression are being met with cautious optimism by experts. UMass Medical School physician-scientist Anthony Rothschild, MD, notes that further research is needed to confirm the outcomes of the
pilot study,
published in
Biological Psychiatry, in which six out of seven patients experienced rapid and dramatic improvement after receiving deep brain stimulation (DBS) in the medial forebrain bundle, one of several areas of the brain associated with mood disorders.
For more information please see
http://www.umassmed.edu/news/2013/research/depression-expert-calls-deep-brain-stimulation-results-promising.aspx
April 2013
Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology and Director, Depression Specialty Clinic, was recently awarded a prestigious NIH mentored research career development award (K23) from the NIH/NIMH. In 2012 the NIH reviewed 555 K23 career development award applications, of which 35 were awarded by the NIH/NIMH.
The five year award of approx. $1 million will investigate potential neuroendocrine and neuroimaging endophenotypes in postpartum depression. As part of the K23 award, Dr. Deligiannidis will acquire advanced training (UMMS Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, NIMH, and Harvard) which will focus on reproductive and behavioral endocrinology and neuroimaging to study interactions of the reproductive endocrine system on neural circuitry in depression.
January 2013
Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology and Director, Depression Specialty Clinic, will present on “Nutriceuticals in the Treatment of Perinatal Depression” at the American Psychiatric Association’s 166th Annual Meeting in San Francisco, CA on May 18, 2013. Her presentation is part of the Symposium “Non-pharmacological Treatment Interventions for Perinatal Depression” chaired by Dr. Katherine Wisner and whose focus is the safety and efficacy of three commonly available nutriceuticals: omega-3 fatty acids, folate and S-Adenosylmethionine (SAMe). Other topics to be presented as part of this Symposium include psychotherapy, sleep and wake therapies and acupuncture in the treatment of perinatal depression. Dr. Deligiannidis is a perinatal psychiatrist who conducts translational perinatal depression research in the Center for Psychopharmacologic Research & Treatment (CPRT).
October 2012
Dr Kristina Deligiannidis was recently invited to join the trainee advisory board (junior editorial board) of the Scandinavian peer-reviewed Journal, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Her three-year term will begin January 1, 2013. As a member of this internationally-based board she will participate in editorial training activities and participate in the annual Editorial Board meeting in Denmark.
October 2, 2012
Can Vitamin D help chase away depression?
Wendy K. Marsh, M.D., M.S., assistant professor of psychiatry, UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Health Care, is trying to find out.
Marsh is among an elite group of researchers chosen to receive prestigious 2012 Young Investigator Grants from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation. The grants are said to be among the most competitive in biomedical research: Marsh’s was one of only 202 awarded from some 1,030 applications this year. Funding for the grants totals $11.9 million.
Marsh will use her award for a randomized double-blind, placebo-controlled pilot trial to examine the effect of Vitamin D supplementation on bipolar depression. She believes there is a link; that Vitamin D may help to safely reduce depression symptoms in bipolar disorders.
Trial participants with bipolar depression and low Vitamin D levels will receive either Vitamin D or a placebo and see if an increase in their Vitamin D levels can be associated with improved mood and, in particular, less depression.
Marsh’s research interests include mood and reproductive phases as well as alternative treatments for depression. She sees patients with a focus on mood disorders in relation to reproductive phases.
August 16, 2012 -
Visiting Professor
Dr. Søren Dinesen Østergaard, a visiting professor from the
Aalborg Psychiatric Hospital and
Aarhus University Hospital in Denmark, recently spoke to a UMMS Psychiatry audience about the evolving study of psychotic depression and the diagnoses and treatment of the disorder.
Østergaard, who is working on a clinical study to construct a rating scale for all of the symptoms of psychotic depression, said there is evidence that severe depression has “specific heritability” – meaning that it is passed down through generations of families.
Østergaard spoke at the Biological Psychiatry Seminar Aug. 16 at the invitation of Dr. Anthony Rothschild, whom Østergaard described as, “one of the most famous researchers in the field.” Rothschild, who holds the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Endowed Chair of Psychiatry at UMMS, directs the UMass Medical Depression Center. He also serves as Program Director for the Mood Disorders Comprehensive Consultation Clinic at UMass Memorial Medical Center, and directs the Center for Psychopharmacologic Research and Treatment.
August 1, 2012
Featured Publications!
Clinical Manual for Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychotic Depression
"Anthony J. Rothschild, M.D."
2009
207 pages
ISBN 978-1-58562-292-4
Paperback
Item #62292
July 2012
Grand Rounds, Franklin Medical Center, Greenfield, MA
Kristina M. Deligiannidis, M.D. was invited as Grand Rounds Speaker for Baystate Health in Western Massachusetts on
Evidence Based Practice for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety: Assessment, Triage and Treatment.In attendance were physicians, nurses, midwives, mental health providers and other professionals working with women and families in the perinatal period.
May 28, 2012
Kristina M. Deligiannidis, M.D. was elected to the national Board of Directors of the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology (ASCP) and installed at the 52nd Annual NCDEU meeting. The ASCP was founded in 1992 to advance the science and practice of clinical psychopharmacology. Its nearly 800 members are physicians who study and practice psychopharmacology, as well as doctoral level investigators of clinical psychopharmacology or of pharmacology. ASCP members are advocates for clinical psychopharmacology and for clinical research. She serves on the Model Curriculum Committee which develops psychopharmacology curricula for use in psychiatry residency training programs in the US and internationally.
May 6, 2012 
Antidepressants
Do Not Increase Risk of Suicide, Says Expert
Antidepressants do “really work” and do not “cause suicide,” said Anthony Rothschild, M.D., at APA’s 2012 annual meeting today during a discussion of his second book in the American Psychiatric Publishing’s Evidence-Based Guides series,
The Evidence-Based Guide to Antidepressant Medications.
Rothschild said that although clinicians have successfully used antidepressants to treat millions of patients suffering from depression for 50 years, Kirsch et al. published a paper in 2008 claiming that although antidepressants are statistically superior to placebo, the magnitude of the drug-placebo difference is small, and that these differences were clinically relevant only in patients with severe depression. The paper received considerable attention in the popular press, including radio, front-page newspaper coverage, and a recent story on “60 Minutes.”
March 2012
Child Psychiatry Interdisciplinary Annual Conference, Baystate Medical Center/Tufts University School of Medicine, Springfield, MA
Kristina M. Deligiannidis, M.D. gave a presentation for Baystate Health in Western Massachusetts on: -Perinatal Depression: Addressing the needs of mother and child. In attendance were physicians, nurses, midwives, mental health providers and other professionals working with women and families in the perinatal period.
March 12, 2012 Expert's Corner: Anthony Rothschild on depression
By Lisa M. Larson and Bryan Goodchild
UMass Medical School Communications |
|
Anthony Rothschild, MD, the
Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Chair in Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry, has been studying the pathophysiology and treatment of depression for approximately 30 years. In this Expert’s Corner video, Dr. Rothschild outlines the symptoms of a major depressive episode. He also explains different types of depression and talks about current research.
See:
http://umassmed.edu/news/2012/experts-corner/rothschild-anthony.aspx
March 2, 2012
At UMass Medical, brain ‘pacemaker’ targets depression By Karen Nugent TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
WORCESTER — Broadmann Area 25.
It sounds like deep space, but actually it’s a deep section of the human brain thought to be responsible for bad moods. If that mood never goes away, even with treatment, it’s called chronic or clinical depression. Research using modern imaging studies a few years ago found that the area functions differently — it becomes overactive — in people who are chronically depressed and have tried everything from medication to electroshock therapy.
February 17, 2012
Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and director, Depression Specialty Clinic, will be giving a webinar about depression treatment in primary care settings, Wednesday, February 22, 12:20 to 12:50 pm. This monthly webinar series of Prime Time Conversations is presented by the Center for the Advancement of Primary Care (CAPC) for primary care physicians. Dr. Deligiannidis presents “When First-step Treatments for Depression Fail: Tips for Depression Treatment in the Primary Care Setting.” Understand how to treat the patient whose depression has failed to respond to an antidepressant trial and learn about the Depression Specialty Clinic. All Prime Time Conversations webinars are archived on the CAPC website.
February 3, 2012
New hope for treatment-resistant depression
Small pulses sent deep within the brain show great promise
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications |
Dr. Rothschild is now leading a
clinical trial at UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial Medical Center for Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS), a state-of-the-art approach that has shown great promise in previous small studies of patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression. See UMassMedNow at
www.umassmed.edu/news
January 19, 2012Antidepressant expert creates user-friendly book
Rothschild editor of ‘The Evidence-Based Guide to Antidepressant Medications’
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications |
Internationally renowned depression expert Anthony Rothschild, MD, the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Endowed Chair in Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry, has created a user-friendly text that digests the current research into best practices with antidepressants...
From the experts...
Do Antidepressants Cause Suicide?
Anthony J. Rothschild
In this article, I provide a brief outline of the discussion of two timely topics: whether antidepressants "really work" and whether antidepressants "can cause suicide".
>>read more
Reuters Health
October 4, 2011
Wendy Marsh MD MS and her co-authors awarded a top 2011 Poster Prize at the 22nd Annual North American Menopause Society (NAMS) Meeting in Washington DC, Sep. 24. Using the SWAN (Study of Women's health Across the Nation) database, Dr. Marsh and colleagues' study found that a longer duration of estradiol exposure, measured by years from menarche to menopause, prior to entering the menopausal transition was protective against depression during the menopausal transition. Read what Dr. Marsh says in the Reuters Health article, Oct. 4.
August 2011
Efforts to fight depression earn national recognition
Center of Excellence advances collaborative work in prevention, treatment and advocacy UMass Medical School and clinical partner UMass Memorial Health Care have been invited to join the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) as a Center of Excellence.
An elite network comprising 22 academic medical institutions, the NNDC was founded in 2007 to advance comprehensive, multidisciplinary collaboration and networking of resources on a national scale. “Our acceptance into this network of prestigious institutions is recognition of the collaborative work in the areas of depression treatment, research and advocacy underway at UMass Medical School and UMass Memorial,” said Anthony Rothschild, MD, the Irving S. and Betty Brudnick Chair in Psychiatry and professor of psychiatry.
For more information go to
http://www.umassmed.edu/news/community/2011/efforts-to-fight-depression-recognized.aspx
July 14, 2011
Research Could Pinpoint Postpartum Depression Risks
By Sera Congi,
WBZ-TV
June 22, 2011
Study uses brain imaging to understand postpartum depression
Findings may help identify women who are at high risk
“Using new methods of imaging and measuring the brain’s chemistry, we can look at specific neurotransmitters in the brain involved in depression and see if there are any differences between women who develop postpartum depression and those who don’t,” said Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry and principal investigator on the study.
For the full article and video please see:
For more information on Dr. Deligiannidis's research please see:
May 11, 2011 66th SOBP Annual Meeting
Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis recently returned from San Francisco where she received a Society of Biological Psychiatry (SOBP) Travel Fellowship Award to attend the 66th SOBP Annual Meeting, President's reception (Helen Mayberg, MD) and an Awards Reception. Six junior investigators in biological psychiatry research were awarded from the US, and six were awarded internationally to receive this fellowship award. https://www.sobp.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageID=1 | 
Trey Sunderland, MD (SOBP Executive Secretary), Kristina Deligiannidis, MD and Elliott Richelson, MD (SOBP Treasurer).
|
May 1, 2011
2010 Pilot Project Program Awardee
| Principal Investigator | |
| Kristina Deligiannidis, MD (T1) |
The World Health Organization reports that depression is the leading cause of disease burden and years loss to disability for women in their childbearing years(1). The perinatal (i.e. antenatal and postpartum) period is a time of elevated risk for depression; approximately 1 in 8 women are diagnosed with postpartum depression (PPD) annually. PPD is marked by feelings of hopelessness, suicidal ideation, guilty ruminations, loss of interest and energy, loss of appetite, dysregulated sleep and poor daily functioning. To read more please see http://www.umassmed.edu/Content.aspx?id=126098.
April 1, 2011
UMass Memorial congratulates its physicians named to the 2011 list of
Best Doctors 2011
Including: Department of Psychiatry's Anthony J. Rothschild MD
Best Doctors®, Inc. continuously surveys specialists worldwide to ask which doctors they would choose for treatment in their own specialty. Less than five percent of U.S. doctors are named to the list. UMass Memorial Health Care is proud that more than 10 percent of our doctors at our five hospitals were named to this prestigious list
March 15, 2011
Be Mentally Well Program
Depression experts offer hope
UMMS psychiatrists shed light on pervasive but treatable medical condition
By Sandra Gray
UMass Medical School Communications | March 23, 2011 |
Launched last fall, Be Mentally Well is a series of informational lectures that are free and open to the public. At “Understanding and Treating Depression,” UMMS psychiatrists Anthony Rothschild, MD, Gary Moak, MD, and Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, clarified the signs and symptoms of depression, discussed the great variety of effective treatments already available and those under development, and explained the exceptional challenges of recognizing and treating depression in the elderly.
For more on this article please visit:
http://www.umassmed.edu/news/community/2011/hope_for_depression.aspx
To find out when “Understanding and Treating Depression” will be broadcast by Worcester local access cable station WCAA-TV13, visit their website at http://www.wccatv.com/schedule.
February 2011
October 13, 2010
Women’s mental health focus of sixth annual Psychiatry Research Day
 | |  |
| Dr. Kristina Deligiannidis discusses her research into gender differences in mood disorders at the Psychiatry Research Day poster session with Robert J. Carey Jr., PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry, while research coordinator, Chelsea Kosma looks on. | | Among many distinguished guests at the event were Betty Brudnick and Shirley Siff, EdD, who
with their husbands have both endowed chairs
in psychiatry. The Irving S. and Betty Brudnick
Chair in Psychiatry is held by Anthony Rothschild pictured above. |
August 11, 2010
Dr. Rothschild was recently interviewed for articles appearing on:
June 17, 2010
WFBR grants fund innovative research
The latest round of Worcester Foundation for Biomedical Science (WFBR) Annual Research Grants, awarded to 13 UMass Medical School investigators, is continuing the tradition of sowing seeds for innovative research across a broad array of disciplines.
WFBR Annual Research Grants allow recipients to produce preliminary data needed to secure grants from the National Institutes of Health. Among the projects funded this year with $35,000 in seed grants are those of Kristina Deligiannidis, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry; Jeffrey Jensen, PhD, assistant professor of bioinformatics & integrated biology and molecular medicine; and Laura Lambert, MD, assistant professor of surgery.
Dr. Deligiannidis’s lab will obtain pilot data to establish a neurochemical biosignature (or marker) to identify pregnant women at risk for developing post-partum depression (PPD), a disorder which afflicts one in eight new mothers, so that a potential screening test may be developed. To investigate emerging pre-clinical and clinical evidence suggesting that dysregulation of neuroactive steroids and interrelated neurochemical systems contribute to the development of PPD, her lab will analyze blood levels of neuroactive steroids during and post pregnancy. In addition, they will measure women’s brain levels of specific neurochemicals that have been implicated in the development of PPD with magnetic resonance spectroscopy, a sophisticated neuroimaging technique. A School of Medicine and UMMS psychiatry residency graduate, Deligiannidis recently joined the faculty and is the medical director of the Depression Specialty Clinic at UMass Memorial Medical Center.
May 4, 2010
Senior Scholars Day
Senior Scholars Day 2010 was held Monday, May 3rd in the Faculty Conference Room. Students presented their research posters from 11-12noon. Senior Scholars Day keynote speaker, Dr. Anthony Rothschild, spoke about his career in research following the poster session. Students individually recieved certificates for completing their research project.
2010 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in New Orleans, LA
Saturday, May 22 – Wednesday, May 26
APPI Master Courses Psychopharmacologic, ECT, and Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Psychotic (Delusional) Depression
Monday, May 24 1:00pm-5:00pm
Presented by Anthony J. Rothschild, M.D.,with Brandon Guadiano, Ph.D.
This course will focus on how to accurately diagnose and assess patients with psychotic depression, identify the difficult differential diagnoses between psychotic depression and other psychiatric disorders, understand the use of adjunctive psychotherapy in patients with psychotic depression, and treat patients with psychotic depression with somatic therapies including medications or referral to electroconvulsive therapy.
The price includes a copy of Clinical Manual for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Psychotic Depression.
Advances in the Use of Antipsychotic Medications
Tuesday, May 25 9:00am-12:00pm
Co-Chairpersons: Anthony J. Rothschild, M.D., Kristina Deligiannidis, M.D.
This session is based, and all the speakers are authors from, the recently published Evidence Based Guide To Antipsychotic Medications. Each speaker will review both FDA-approved and off-label uses of antipsychotic medications (both first generation and second generation) and the evidence base that supports (or does not support) their use. Each of the speakers has taken a large amount of medical literature and synthesized it into a comprehensive and understandable formfor the practicing clinician. This session will focus on the use of antipsychotic medications in schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, personality disorders, mood and anxiety disorders, and in the medically ill.
MARCH 22, 2010
KRISTINA DELIGIANNIDIS MD has been selected to participate in the 2010 Career Development Institute (CDI) for Psychiatry, a career enhancement opportunity that provides support around launching and maintaining a career in mental health research. 15-20 participants were chosen nationally to attend the CDI this year.
UMass Memorial congratulates its physicians named to the 2010 list of
Best Doctors 2010
Including: Department of Psychiatry's Anthony J. Rothschild MD
Best Doctors®, Inc. continuously surveys specialists worldwide to ask which doctors they would choose for treatment in their own specialty. Less than five percent of U.S. doctors are named to the list. UMass Memorial Health Care is proud that more than 10 percent of our doctors at our five hospitals were named to this prestigious list.