In the News

A recent report from faculty and staff in the Vanderbilt Division of Geriatric Psychiatry demonstrates the potential benefit of adding transdermal nicotine patches to standard antidepressant medications for older adults with depression.  The open-label study found that administration of nicotine patches safely resulted in improvement in mood and some measures of cognitive performance.  This study supports that further work is needed, such as the ongoing placebo-controlled trial currently underway in the Vanderbilt Division of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Warren Taylor, M.D., James G Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, served as an author on the recently published article "Influences of resting-state intrinsic functional brain connectivity on the antidepressant treatment response in late-life depression." The article appears in the journal Psychological Medicine and details how connectivity between brain regions measured before treatment may predict response to common antidepressant medications.  This work was led by Mr.

Assistant professor of Geriatric Psychiatry Patricia S. Andrews, M.D., recently served as lead author on the paper "Delirium, depression, and long-term cognition," published in the journal International Psychogeriatrics. In this new publication, Dr. Andrews et. al. found that patients with a depression history prior to ICU stay exhibit a greater severity of depressive symptoms in the year after hospitalization.

Assistant professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Alexandra (Alex) Bettis, Ph.D., will be chairing a symposium, "The Role of Caregivers in Interventions for Youth Depression and Suicidality," at the annual meeting of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America in March 2022. Dr. Bettis, who also holds an appointment in Psychology & Human Development within Vanderbilt University, will present alongside Jessica Schwartzman Ph.D. (assistant professor of Psychiatry), Kirsty Clark, Ph.D.

Warren D. Taylor, M.D., MHSc, James G Blakemore Professor of Psychiatry, served as lead author of a new publication proposing how dysfunction in the dopamine system may influence depression in older adults. This may influence risk for depression but also serve as a new target for treatment.  The manuscripts provides the rationale for a current multi-site study being conducted at Vanderbilt examining the effect of levodopa (Sinemet) on late-life depression. The paper appears in the journal Molecular Psychiatry. 

A Vanderbilt University Medical Center pilot study of treating late-life depression in nonsmokers with transdermal nicotine (nicotine patch) has yielded some promising results, but the study’s author cautions that more study is needed. Late-life depression — depression that occurs in adults 60 years or older — is characterized by poor response to antidepressant medications and often memory issues. About half of those treated for late-life depression fail to respond to initial treatments.

Yi Deng, M.D., resident in Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Warren Taylor, M.D., professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, have worked together to publish a paper titled "Predictors of recurrence in remitted late-life depression" in the journal Depression and Anxiety. The paper examines factors in older adults that may predict the return of depression after successful antidepressant treatment.  Click here to view the abstract.

Meghan Riddle, M.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and Warren Taylor, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, were among the authors of an article titled "Longitudinal cognitive outcomes of clinical phenotypes of late-life depression," published recently in the March issue of The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Karen Stewart, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, and colleagues from Virginia Commonwealth University Institute of Drug and Alcohol Studies recently published a review article on impulsivity and smoking in patients with comorbid mental health concerns.

Warren D. Taylor, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, served as co-author on a new paper titled "Frontocingulate cerebral blood flow and cerebrovascular reactivity as predictors of antidepressant response in late-life depression." The paper appears in the Journal of Affective Disorders. The study was directed by Dr. Margarita Abi Zeid Daou, a PGY4 resident in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, mentored by Dr. Taylor.