Archives 2024

We are delighted to report that Carmen Andreescu, MD (Professor of Psychiatry), has received the Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Psychiatry Perry Award, presented in memory of Samuel Wesley Perry III, MD. The Perry Award recognizes Dr. Andreescu’s exceptional program of research and mentorship that has advanced our understanding of the neural basis of depression and anxiety in older adults, and guided the use of more efficacious treatments.

Dr. Andreescu is an internationally recognized expert in the clinical treatment of late-life anxiety and depression. Her research focuses on the affective and cognitive neuroscience of anxiety and depression among the elderly, as well as markers of treatment response in anxiety and depression among this population. As part of the award process, Dr. Andreescu presented a lecture at Cornell entitled “Worried to Death – The Effects of Worry, Anxiety, and Rumination on Mind and Body,” in which she reviewed the data supporting the deleterious effects of severe worry on brain age, and described the neural networks involved with worry induction and reappraisal in older adults. 

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Andreescu!

UPMC’s Western Psychiatric Hospital’s podcast recently had Dr. Carmen Andreescu on to discuss her research on severe worry and anxiety in older adults. In the podcast, Dr. Andresscu discusses how not all worry is pathological, as well as the dramatic effects of severe worry on a patient’s psychology, brain, and aging. Intervention and treatment, as well as the value of Transcranial Stimulation (TMS) were also discussed.

To give it a listen, please click here.

For her dissertation, Antonija conducted an in-depth investigation into the microbiota-gut-brain axis, exploring its implications for cognitive function and depressive symptoms in older adults. The results hold promise for offering valuable insights and groundbreaking interventions for individuals facing mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and late-life depression, with the potential to alleviate their societal burden.

Congratulations, Antonija!

ARGO’s very own Dr. Thomas Kraynak wrote an article for the Pittsburgh Post Gazette. See below for an excerpt:

I wish I could have scanned my Grandma Kraynak’s brain before she died. Most people in their seventies and beyond tend to experience memory and other cognitive problems, or even develop dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. But not my Grandma Kraynak. She was mentally quick all the way up to her rather sudden death at age 98. Even in her final years, she could regularly outwit us younger folk in any argument.

After Grandma Kraynak’s passing — yes, our family referred to our late grandparents by their last names, which I have now learned is odd — I wondered why she enjoyed such an active mind and livelihood well into her nineties, unlike so many other people her age. She wasn’t rich, and she didn’t take lots of medications.

So what factors contributed to her being able to live a fulfilled and vibrant life well into her nineties, to be a so-called “healthy ager”?

Read more

Anxiety disorders are prevalent in late life, with symptoms including severe (uncontrollable) worry and rumination. Late-life anxiety, worry, and rumination in the context of the aging brain can be associated with differences in volume and thickness of gray matter regions in the brain, as well as altered functional connectivity in the networks involved in emotion generation and regulation, but these changes may differ by anxiety phenotypes. 

The investigators recruited 110 individuals aged 50 or older, who did or did not have anxiety and/or mood disorders, and assessed their worry severity and cognitive function. Participants underwent one MRI session.

Click here to read the original article posted on Pitt’s website, and here to read the published paper.