In the News

Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology, served as lead author on the paper "Changes in anxiety following a randomized control trial of a theatre-based intervention for youth with autism spectrum disorder," recently published ahead of print in the journal Autism. The randomized clinical trial reports that youth with autism spectrum disorder showed changes in anxiety following participation in a peer-mediated, theatre-based intervention.

Michelle Failla, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Fellow in Carissa Cascio's lab, was one of two postdocs selected to present her research at the Postdoctoral Association & Shared Resources Symposium in late April.  Failla used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a ‘communication independent’ tool to measure pain responses and found that individuals with ASD seem to register pain in a similar manner as individuals without ASD.

Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, was one of several co-authors whose paper was recently published in the Journal of Neurodevelopmental Disorders. The paper, "A functional neuroimaging study of fusiform response to restricted interests in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder," can be found in the April 2016 edition of the journal. View the paper on BioMed Central.

Neil Woodward, Ph.D., and Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., Assistant Professors of Psychiatry, served as co-authors on a paper titled "Brain structure in autism: a voxel-based morphometry analysis of the Autism Brain Imaging Database Exchange (ABIDE)," published in the March 2016 issue of the journal Brain Imaging Behavior.

Adriana Kipper-Smith, Ph.D., HSP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, is the lead author of a new article appearing in the International Journal of School & Education Psychology. The article is titled "Effects of biofeedback on distress in a university counseling center: Preliminary Results." Kipper-Smith is also a staff psychologist for Vanderbilt University Medical Center's Psychological and Counseling Center.

Divya Kannan, Ph.D., HSP, Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Staff Psychologist, Psychological and Counseling Center, was recently interviewed by US News Health for an article titled "self-Criticism Can Be Psychologically Devastating -- How to Overcome It."

Warren D. Taylor, M.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry, has two publications in recent print. An editorial titled "Moderators of remission in late-life depression: Where do we go next?" appears in JAMA Psychiatry as of Mar. 9, 2016.

The Vanderbilt Comprehensive Assessment Program and the Institute For Behavior and Health, Inc., in Rockville, MD, recently published a study spearheaded by Reid Finlayson, M.D., Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry,  addressing whether the high rates of physician suicide may result from association with Physician Health Programs, which suggests that the programs are more likely beneficial.  Dr.

Lawrence S. Gaines, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine, will soon be published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology. His paper is titled "Association between affective-cognitive symptoms of depression and exacerbation of Crohn's Disease." Affective-cognitive symptoms of depression predicted subsequent Crohn's disease activity and hospitalization rate, suggesting a temporal relationship.

Warren Taylor, M.D., MHSc, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, served as lead author on a paper titled "APOE ε4 associated with preserved executive function performance and maintenance of temporal and cingulate brain volumes in younger adults" in the journal Brain Imaging & Behavior.  According to the abstract, the APOE ε4 allele is associated with cognitive deficits and brain atrophy in older adults, but studies in younger adults are mixed.  The ε4 allele benefits younger adults