RECENT WEBINARS

PRAGMATIC PRECISION PSYCHIATRY

The precision medicine revolution has progressed more slowly in psychiatry than other areas of medicine. In this presentation, I argue that this is because the focus of precision psychiatry up to now has been on under-powered studies of biomarkers predicting differential responses across psychotropic medications. Such studies have a very low likelihood of yielding useful information, especially given the lack of substantial variation in mechanisms of action of comparator interventions. However, there are other great unexplored opportunities for precision treatment planning in psychiatry. An overview of these opportunities is presented here along with discussion of some illustrative ongoing studies.

SPEAKER
Ronald C. Kessler, PhD, McNeil Family Professor, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard University

 

A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TOWARD COMPLEXITY IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH
Beginning with a philosophical/conceptual level discussing integrative pluralism, hoping to show the challenges of this approach but the substantial dangers of hard reductionism and speculative emergentism. Followed by a review of empirical studies of the actual nature of psychiatric research as it is currently practiced. Lastly, a demonstration, through a range of empirical studies, of the potential complexities of the joint actions of genetic and environmental factors on psychiatric disease risk and how these might be captured by specific study designs.

 

SPEAKER
Kenneth S. Kendler, MD, VCU Health

 

TEMPORAL DYNAMICS OF SUICIDE
Implications for Timing of Interventions
Overview of temporal trends including seasonal, monthly, weekly, and diurnal patterns in suicide, along with dynamics into studies of the prevention or treatment of suicide.

 

SPEAKERS
Randy P. Auerbach, Ph.D., Columbia University
Hilary Blumberg, MD, Yale School of Medicine
Andrew Leroux, Ph.D., University of Colorado

 

CLOCKS, SLEEP AND HEALTH
An Introduction to Their Potential Interactions: Almost all biological functions are modulated by the circadian clock(s) over 24 hours. It is not surprising that pathologies show circadian characteristics and, vice-versa, that circadian clock(s) may change with pathology. The network of circadian physiology and behaviors interacting with the natural and the social environment is highly complex. One could therefore argue that the clock-pathology interactions are similar across many illnesses. I will introduce chronobiology and specifically to the circadian clock(s) and present examples of association between clock and psychiatric pathologies.

 

SPEAKER
Professor Till Roennenberg, Institute of Medical Psychology at Ludwig-Maximilian University (LMU) in Munich, Germany