Carmen Andreescu, MD, Honored by Weill Cornell Medicine Department of Psychiatry

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!

Podcast: Severe Anxiety in Older Adults and its Effects Upon Brain and Body Aging

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.

Antonija’s Dissertation Defense

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!

Article in the Pittsburgh Post Gazette: Brain scans can predict your age. What does this mean for healthy aging?

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

Carmen Andreescu, MD, Elected to Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Scientific Council

Carmen Andreescu, MD, (Professor of Psychiatry), and Andrea Goldschmidt, PhD, (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), have been elected to the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) Scientific Council. The BBRF is the top non-governmental funder of mental health research grants. The Scientific Council reviews and selects the most promising research proposals with the greatest potential to lead to breakthroughs in mental health research.

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. Her groundbreaking research has demonstrated the important clinical distinction between worry and anxiety, and that some components of anxiety in older adults have different clinical and functional implications.

Read the full article here

Dr. Andrew Gerlach Promoted to Assistant Professor

Dr. Gerlach received his PhD in nuclear engineering and radiological sciences from the University of Michigan College of Engineering, then came to Pittsburgh for postdoctoral research training on the Department of Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Clinical and Translational Research Training in Late-Life Mood Disorders program. 

With a background in mathematics and computational modeling, Dr. Gerlach’s current research focuses on developing multi-modal neuroimaging tools to investigate the pathophysiology and treatment response in anxiety and mood disorders. He currently leads an NIMH-funded K01 career development award that aims to integrate complementary network measures from structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging with clinical measures to generate biologically relevant features that can improve prediction of treatment outcome in late-life depression.

Read the official announcement here.

Dr. Andrew Gerlach Awarded a K Award by NIMH

Dr. Gerlach was awarded a K01 by the National Institute of Mental Health! His study, Individual Multimodal Pathway Statistics for Predicting Treatment Response in Late-life Depression, will integrate complementary structural and functional measures of brain networks with important clinical measures to generate biologically relevant features for predicting treatment outcome in late-life depression.

New Paper: “Sex matters: acute functional connectivity changes as markers of remission in late-life depression differ by sex”

In our group’s latest paper in Molecular Psychiatry entitled “Sex matters: acute functional connectivity changes as markers of remission in late-life depression differ by sex,” we investigated how early changes in intrinsic neural activity after initiating antidepressant treatment could be used to predict remission from late-life depression and the role of biological sex in this dynamic.

Surprisingly, we were able to better predict remission by training separate random forest models on males and females than using a combined model that included sex as a variable. Deeper investigation revealed sex-specific patterns of change that keyed on a few specific regions for males and a much broader network for females. The caudate nucleus—an important region in the reward network—stood out as a prominent exception to this observation, providing the most predictive value for both males and females.

To read the full paper, click here

Dr. Helmet Karim is Granted 2023 ACNP Travel Award

Dr. Helmet Karim has been granted one of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology’s 2023 Travel Awards!

The American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annually selects distinguished young scientists in the field of neuropsychopharmacology to be part of our travel award program. These travel awards offer an opportunity to attend an outstanding scientific program in clinical and basic research on brain-behavior-drug interactions; become aware of the most recent, and often unpublished, advances in psychopharmacology; and meet and interact with internationally distinguished researchers and scientists.

This means the Dr. Karim will be attending the 62nd Annual Meeting of ACNP in Tampa, Florida fully paid for! Congratulations, Helmet!

Dr. Carmen Andreescu is Awarded the 2023 Outstanding Mentor Award

The 21st annual Department of Psychiatry Research Day, held on June 8, 2023 was the biggest Research Day ever, attended by more than 500 faculty members, trainees, and staff, and featuring 160 posters at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. 

Carmen Andreescu, MD, received the 2023 Outstanding Mentor Award for achievements including mentorship of postdoctoral scholars, bioengineering and clinical psychology graduate students, MD and MD/PhD students, and postdoctoral fellows, as well as her co-leadership of the Department’s National Institute of Mental Health-funded Clinical and Translational Research Training in Geriatric Mental Health T32 postdoctoral research training program.

Please read the full article here