Date

Topic

Speaker

4/7/2010

Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD):
Lessons Learned about the Course and Treatment of Bipolar Disorder

Andrew A. Nierenberg, M.D.
Co-Director, Bipolar Clinic and Research Program
Associate Director, Depression Clinical and Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

4/21/2010

Quantitative EEGs Help Guide Treatment Decisions in Depression

Dan V. Iosifescu, MD
Director of Neurophysiology Studies,
Depression Clinical and Research Program and Assistant Psychiatrist
Massachusetts General Hospital
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

5/5/2010

Perinatal Depression and Omega -3 Fatty Acids

Marlene P. Freeman, MD
Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Lecturer on Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

5/19/2010

Role of Glutammetargic Drugs in Schizophrenia

Donald C. Goff, MD
Director, Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospital
Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

6/2/2010

New Approaches to Anxious Depression

Maurizio Fava, MD
Executive Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Director, Depression Clinical and Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospita)
Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School

6/16/2010

Neurotherapeutic Interventions in Psychiatry

Darin Dougherty, MD
Director, Division of Neurotherapeutics, Department of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

6/30/2010

From Drug to Gene and Back Again: Pharmacogenetics and Drug Discovery in the Mood Disorders

Roy H. Perlis, MD
Medical Director, Bipolar Clinic and Research Program,
Department of Psychiatry
Director, Laboratory of Psychiatric Pharmacogenomics,
Center for Human Genetic Research
Massachusetts General Hospital
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School

Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, MD
Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Massachusetts General Hospital; Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Rosenbaum, Psychiatrist-in-Chief at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, is recognized as one of the world’s foremost authorities on mood and anxiety disorders, with a special emphasis on pharmacotherapy of those conditions. His research contributions include extensive leadership in the design and conduct of clinical trials of new therapies, the design and implementation of trials to develop innovative treatments for major depression, treatment resistant depression, and panic disorder, studies of psychopathology including comorbidity and subtypes, and studies of longitudinal course and outcomes of those disorders.

Dr. Rosenbaum had authored more than 400 original articles and reviews and has published 12 books. He currently serves on 12 editorial boards of professional journals or newsletters. A particular research focus had been ongoing studies of children at risk of anxiety disorders and depression, which examine behavioral differences, risk factors, treatment, genetics, and brain structure and function of children of parents with mood and anxiety disorders.

At MGH, he directs a department of over 600 clinicians, researchers, and trainees, which has been ranked by U.S. News and World Report as the #1 Department of Psychiatry in the United States for the past twelve years in a row. Also at MGH, the largest hospital based research institution in the world, with over 500 million dollars per year of research funding. Dr. Rosenbaum serves as Chair of the hospitals Executive Committee on Research. Dr. Rosenbaum’s clinical and consulting practice specializes in treatment resistant mood and anxiety disorders, and he consults extensively to colleagues on management of these conditions. He has lectured widely on related topics, addressing many thousands of practitioners over the years in a variety of postgraduate educational venues.

Together with his colleagues, he developed the MGH outpatient service into a world leading clinical and clinical research center, with specialty programs including the Depression Clinical and Research Program, the Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Program, and the Psychiatric Genetics program in Mood and Anxiety Disorders, each of which has extensive portfolios of funded research. A recent major accomplishment has been the establishment of the Massachusetts General Psychiatry Academy, now with over 30,000 members, to bring high-quality, objective, and curriculum based continuing medical education to physicians and other health professional across the nation and around the world. Dr. Rosenbaum was the 2007 recipient of the C. Charles Burlingame professionals across the nation and around the world. Dr. Rosenbaum was the 2007 recipient of the C. Charles Burlingame Award given annually for lifetime achievement in psychiatric research and education by the institute of Living in Hartford, CT.

Dr. Rosenbaum received his undergraduate degree from Yale College and his medical degree from Yale School of Medicine. He completed his residency and fellowship in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

Maurizio Fava, MD
Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry, Director, Depression Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital; Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Maurizio Fava obtained his medical degree from the University of Padova School of Medicine and completed residency training in endocrinology at the same university. He then moved to the United States and completed residency training in psychiatry at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston, Massachusetts. He has been Director of the Depression Clinical and Research Program since 1990 at the same hospital.

Under Dr. Fava’s direction, the Depression Clinical and Research Program has become one of the most highly regarded depression programs in the country, a true model for academic programs that link, in a bi-directional fashion, clinical and research work. The number of ongoing projects has grown from 5 in 1990 to the more than 40 currently.

Dr. Fava has also been successful in obtaining funding for the program, as principal or co-principal investigator, from both the National Institutes of Health and industry for a total of more than $23,000,000 in the past ten years. Dr. Fava’s prominence in the field is reflected by his role as the co-principal investigator of STAR*D, the largest study ever conducted in the area of depression.

Dr. Fava has authored or co-authored more than 400 original articles published in medical journals with international circulation. He has also edited five books, and published more than 50 chapters and 500 abstracts.

Dr. Fava is also a well-known national and international speaker, having given more than 200 presentations at national and international meetings during his career in psychiatry. He is currently Executive Vice Chair for the Department of Psychiatry and Executive Director, MGH Clinical Trials Network and Institute, and Director of the MGH Depression Clinical and Research Program, and Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.

Marlene P. Freeman, MD
Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Program, Massachusetts General Hospital;
Lecturer on Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

As of September 2008, Dr. Freeman joined the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital as a faculty member in the Perinatal and Reproductive Psychiatry Program, Center for Women’s Mental Health. 

Dr. Freeman’s research and clinical work has focused on the evaluation and treatment of women around topics of pregnancy and the postpartum, as well as the perimenopausal transition.  Dr. Freeman established the University of Arizona’s Women’s Mental Health Program in 2000 and directed the program for seven years.  She developed a research program in perinatal depression with grant support from NARSAD, the National Institute of Mental Health, the U.S. FDA, the Arizona Disease Control Research Commission, and the Institute for Mental Health Research.  These grants supported research in perinatal depression.  In 2007, she relocated to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center to assist with the creation a new Women’s Mental Health Center.

She serves as Vice Editor-in-Chief for The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry since 2007, after serving as Deputy Editor since 2003.  She chaired a subcommittee on Omega-3 Fatty Acids in Psychiatry, on behalf of the American Psychiatric Association (APA).  She currently chairs the APA’s Task Force on Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Donald C. Goff, MD
Director, Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital; Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Dr. Goff is Director of the Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.  In addition, he is Medical Director of the Freedom Trail Clinic at the Erich Lindemann Mental Health Center in Boston.

Dr. Goff earned his undergraduate degree in humanities at the University of California in Berkeley, and his medical degree at the University of California School of Medicine in Los Angeles.  After graduating, he completed his internship in internal medicine at Cedars Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and his residency in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  His research fellowship in psychopharmacology was completed at Tufts-New England Medical Center, also in Boston.

Dr. Goff has authored ore than 180 articles and chapters and lectures nationally and internationally on new treatment approaches in schizophrenia.  Dr. Goff established the Schizophrenia Program at the Massachusetts General Hospital in 1988, which has grown under his leadership to include investigators studying pharmacology genetics, neuroimaging, wellness, and cognitive behavioral therapy.

Dr. Goff is a recipient of the Faculty Scholar Award in Schizophrenia and a Mid-Career Development Award presented by the National Institute of Mental Health, and Kempf Award for Mentorship in Biological Psychiatry from the American Psychiatric Association.  Dr. Goff is a member of the American College of Neuropharmacology..

Dan V. Iosifescu, MD
Director of Neurophysiology Studies, Depression Clinical and Research Program; Massachusetts General Hospital; Instructor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

After receiving his M.D. from the Institute of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest, Romania, Dr. Iosifescu completed an internal medicine internship and a residency in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, serving as Chief Resident in Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry. He later completed a fellowship in psychopharmacology at MGH. In his research Dr. Iosifescu uses neuroimaging and neurophysiology techniques to investigate structural and biochemical brain abnormalities in mood disorders, attempting to find biological predictors of treatment outcome. Dr. Iosifescu is also studying the impact of comorbid medical illness, especially vascular disease, on treatment outcome in mood disorders.

Roy Perlis, MD, MSc
Staff psychiatrist, Bipolar Program; Massachusetts General Hospital; Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School

Roy H. Perlis, MD, MSc, currently serves as Medical Director of the Bipolar Clinical and Research Program at Massachusetts General Hospital and Director of Pharmacogenomics Research in the Department of Psychiatry. He also serves as Consultant to the American Psychiatric Associations bipolar treatment guidelines workgroup. Dr. Perlis' research, clinical, and teaching activities all focus on understanding and managing treatment resistant mood disorders. Dr. Perlis completed his undergraduate work in neuroscience at Brown University. He went on to attend Harvard Medical School where he earned his medical degree, and the Harvard School of Public Health for his Master of Science degree. He completed internship in internal medicine and residency in Psychiatry at MGH and McLean Hospital, serving as Chief Resident in Psychiatry and completing a clinical/research fellowship in mood disorders before joining the faculty. Dr. PerIis has authored more than 80 original, research articles in addition to numerous reviews, chapters, and editorials. He maintains two complementary research programs in pharmacogenetics and the clinica1 investigation of pharmacotherapy in mood disorders. Dr. Perlis leads ongoing studies to examine clinical and genetic predictors of treatment response in large multicenter trials in bipolar disorder and major depression, including the first genome wide association study of treatment response in bipolar disorder. His work is supported by grants from the NIMH, NARSAD, the Stanley Center, and the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation.