Epidemiology of
Brain Disorders
Ezra Susser, M.D., Dr. P.H., Chief
of Psychiatric Research
Micheline Bresnahan, Dr. P.H., Research
Scientist II
Alan Brown, M.D., Research
Scientist II
Pamela Collins, M.D., M.P.H., Research
Scientist II
Jennie Kline, Ph.D., Research
Scientist VI
Richard Neugebauer, Ph.D., Research
Scientist V
Ezra Susser is director of the department. He has developed a program of research in prenatal origins of neurodevelopmental disorders. In addition, he studies the care of individuals with schizophrenia in the community, HIV epidemiology, and the development of methods in psychiatric epidemiology. He currently holds an R01 grant on sexual risk reduction among men with mental illness, and plays a major role in most grants described below. This year a trainee, Raz Gross, obtained a mentored NARSAD Award (mentor, Ezra Susser) to pursue prenatal etiologies of schizophrenia.
Alan Brown was appointed Deputy Director of the Department. He obtained a new R01 grant from NIMH which will examine the relationship of early developmental insults to structural and functional abnormalities in schizophrenia among members of a large birth cohort. He also received an Independent Investigator Award from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression to study prenatal influenza and essential fatty acid deficiency as risk factors for schizophrenia.
Michaeline Bresnahan joined the department this year and was appointed Assistant Professor in the Division of Epidemiology at Mailman School of Public Health. Her investigations focus on the epidemiology of schizophrenia, and autism. In her brief time with the department, she has published several papers and is already advancing our studies of prenatal etiologies of these conditions.
Pamela Collins is funded by a K01 award from NIMH and by a Robert Wood Johnson Award for her studies on HIV risk reduction for women with severe mental illness. These include ethnographic studies of stigma and sexuality among severely mentally ill women, and a randomized clinical trial of a behavioral intervention for efficacy in this patient population. She recently submitted an NIMH R01 grant aimed at reducing barriers to HIV testing and treatment during pregnancy in South Africa.
Daniel Herman (also of the Department of Epidemiology of Mental Disorders) focuses on service delivery for adults with severe mental illness. This year he received a five-year NIMH R01 award entitled "Critical Time Intervention in the Transition from Hospital to Community", to conduct a randomized controlled trial of a psychosocial intervention designed to prevent homelessness among severely mentally ill men and women following discharge from a state hospital. This study is being carried out in close collaboration with the New York State Office of Mental Health, which is providing considerable in-kind support.
Jennie Kline and colleagues are funded by the National Institute on Aging. They have completed the first of two studies to elucidate the connection between advancing maternal age and trisomy. Their observations are compatible with a role for accelerated aging of the reproductive system in the etiology of trisomy. They are now testing the hypothesis more directly in another sample with biologic indicators of reproductive aging. Measures of biologic age include counts of follicles in the ovary, hormone levels, and X-aneuploidy in lymphocytes.
Richard Neugebauer received an Independent Investigator Award from NARSAD and a grant from the National Institutes of Health, each to examine the feasibility, safety, and preliminary evidence of efficacy of brief telephone administered interpersonal counseling (IPC) for depressive reactions to miscarriage/fetal death. This study represents an important beginning effort in an area of secondary prevention of depressive symptoms among women of reproductive age. The NARSAD award focused on adapting IPC to an exclusively Spanish-speaking, socially disadvantaged population. The NIMH award focuses on adapting IPC for English-speaking patients of diverse ethnicity, social class, and life style.
Daniel Pilowsky (also of the Department of Clinical and Genetic Epidemiology) has a career development award which aims to compare psychopathology, social functioning, and other psychosocial outcomes among children of HIV-positive IDUs (Injection Drug Users) to those observed among children of HIV-negative IDUs. Children of IDUs have to cope with multiple stressors and are at high risk for psychopathology. Those whose parents are HIV-positive are hypothesized to be at even higher risk.
The department also includes Ruth Ottman
and Maureen Durkin, who work primarily in the Sergievsky Center.
Dr. Pamela Collins, left, and Drs. Mindy and Robert Fullilove