In the News

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., served as first author on a paper published in Brain Topography: A Journal of Cerebral Function & Dynamics. The paper, "Somatosensory Event-Related Potentials and Association with Tactile Behavioral Responsiveness Patterns in Children with ASD," refutes a popular (but untested) theory of sensory disturbances in autism, namely that behavioral hypo-responsiveness and hyper-responsiveness are both reactions to “overwhelming” sensory input.

Reduced sounds, brighter lights, and an opportunity to learn about the show ahead of time make plays a more pleasant experience for those with autism. But the most important thing is a non-judgmental environment. Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, is mentioned for her research on the effects of a theater-based form of therapy for children with autism.

Michael G. Tramontana, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Neurology, and Pediatrics, recently had research published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Parkinson's Disease. Tramontana was lead author on the research report "Neuropsychological Effects of Deep Brain Stimulation in Subjects with Early Stage Parkinson's Disease in a Randomized Clinical Trial." The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of DBS on neuropsychological functioning in subjects with early stage Parkinson's disease.

Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry, recently presented as part of the New York University Child Study Center Grand Rounds Lecture Series. In addition, Cascio was invited to speak as a guest on the Child Study Center's "About Our Kids" radio show on its "Doctor Radio" Sirius XM radio station. Click here to learn more about the "About Our Kids" radio show.  Click here to learn more about Dr. Cascio's research.  

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has received a $1.8 million grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to join the Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network. The Vanderbilt ADDM network team includes Richard Epstein, Ph.D. M.P.H., as director of epidemiology for vulnerable populations. The project will be led by Zachary Warren, Ph.D., director of the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center Treatment and Research Institute for Autism Spectrum Disorder (VKC TRIAD).

A recent study conducted by Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, was named as an "article of special interest" in a review by Janet Lainhart titled "Brain imaging research in autism spectrum disorders: in search of neuropathology and health across the lifespan." The review is published in the March 2015 issue of Current Opinion in Psychiatry. Among Lainhart's sources was Cascio's paper "Affective neural response to restricted interests in autism spectrum disorders." This artic

Brain scans confirm significant differences in play behavior, brain activation patterns and stress levels in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) as compared with typically developing children. In a first-of-its-kind study, Associate Professor of Psychiatry Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., and colleague Kale Edmiston examined social play exchanges on multiple levels, revealing associations among brain regions, behavior and arousal in children with ASD. The results were released in the journal Social Cognitive Affective Neuroscience.

A “transformational” $6.4 million gift from Dallas couple Donald Test Jr., and his wife, Charlotte, who have a very personal connection to the devastating disease of schizophrenia, is supporting Vanderbilt Department of Psychiatry research and treatment into schizophrenia and related disorders.

Several members of the Vanderbilt Department of Psychiatry collaborated on an article focusing on attention deficits related to traumatic brain injury (TBI). The article, "Traumatic brain injury-related attention deficits: Treatment outcomes with lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (Vyvanse)," appears in an issue of the June 2014 publication Brain Injury. Brain Injury is the official research journal of the International Brain Injury Association (IBIA).

One of the challenges with treating psychiatric disorders is finding a way to study them outside of the human brain. When there is no fundamental understanding of how a disease works, it becomes that much harder to find comparable symptoms in an animal or cell. And when you’re working with diseases such as depression that have symptoms that are hard to objectively quantify, there’s an extra layer of complexity.