In the News

Let’s just say what we all know is true: things are not “normal” right now and things won’t look remotely “normal” for months to come. The coronavirus pandemic shows no signs of slowing down as we inch toward a cold winter, and post-election stress is adding an additional layer of unrest to an already unrestful year.

 Click the image above to read the DISJ Fall 2020 Newsletter in its entirety.

New research from COE team Investigators at the Vanderbilt Center of Excellence for Children in State’s Custody, including Director of Quality Improvement, Kathy Gracey, M.Ed., have shown new links between neighborhood factors and risk for child maltreatment.  The study combined census data with state administrative data and found that youth in the lowest income neighborhoods were 10 times more likely to enter an out-of-home placement. Higher employment rates, having health insurance, and greater educational attainment were protective factors.

Fourth-year resident in General Psychiatry Seth Christman, MD, and James G Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Warren Taylor, MD, MHSc, recently published the article "Accelerated brain aging predicts impaired cognitive performance and greater disability in geriatric but not midlife adult depression" in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Several Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences faculty recently contributed to a new published article in the American Journal of Psychiatry. The article, "Thalamic Nuclei Volumes in Psychotic Disorders and in Youths with Psychosis Spectrum Disorders," was produced by Anna S. Huang, Ph.D., Baxter P. Rogers, Ph.D., Julia M. Sheffield, Ph.D., Maria E. Jalbrzikowski, Ph.D., Alan Anticevic, Ph.D., Jennifer Urbano Blackford, Ph.D., Stephan Heckers, M.D., and Neil D. Woodward, Ph.D.

Maureen McHugo, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, was lead author on a new article published in the journal Translational Psychiatry. "Hippocampal volume in early psychosis: a 2-year longitudinal study" was created by Hugo as well as fellow Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences faculty and staff members Kristan Armstrong, LMSW; Maxwell J. Roeske; Neil D. Woodward, Ph.D.; Jennifer Blackford, Ph.D.; and Stephan Heckers, M.D., MSc.

Hippocampal volume and hippocampal neuron density, number and size in schizophrenia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of postmortem studies Abstract Reduced hippocampal volume is a consistent finding in neuroimaging studies of individuals with schizophrenia. While these studies have the advantage of large-sample sizes, they are unable to quantify the cellular basis of structural or functional changes.

Memory complaints in younger postmenopausal women are associated with differences in brain structure and may serve as an early marker for risk of future cognitive decline, according to a study published June 22 in Menopause by Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers. The study, conducted in collaboration with the University of Vermont, looked at the impact of self-reported memory and attention complaints on brain structure in women ages 50-60 who were in the early years after menopause.

Patricia S. Andrews, M.D., Assistant Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, recently published an article titled "Relationship Between Intensive Care Unit Delirium Severity and 2-Year Mortality and Health Care Utilization" for the American Journal of Critical Care.  Click here to read the article.

Jo Ellen Wilson, M.D., MPH, Instructor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, has published a new paper, titled "The Association Between Brain Volumes and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Intensive Care Unit Survivors: A Preliminary Study," in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience.  Wilson is also a Ph.D. candidate in the Epidemiology program with VUMC's Institute for Medicine and Public Health and specializes in psychosomatic medicine.