SAN DIEGO, May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The American Psychiatric Association (APA) today announced the winners of their prestigious “Young Minds in Psychiatry” awards program supported by a scientific sponsorship from AstraZeneca . Now in its fifth year, the award recognizes excellence and provides support for the development of future leaders in the field of psychiatry research from around the world. The award presentations took place at the APA’s 160th Annual Meeting in San Diego.
“The Young Minds in Psychiatry are innovative awards that have already made a difference in helping to energize promising careers,” said Darrel A. Regier, M.D., M.P.H., Director of the Division of Research at the American Psychiatric Association, and Executive Director of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education (APIRE). “This is a very productive approach that addresses the urgent need for new research that can lead to breakthroughs in psychiatry’s most difficult conditions while recognizing those promising young researchers with a strong potential to contribute important scientific research.”
The 2006 Awards Program attracted more than 30 submissions from around the world that were reviewed by a panel of acclaimed psychiatry experts. Submissions were reviewed based on the strength of each proposal, as well as the prior academic and research success of each candidate. Six winners were selected across two research categories: schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A winner from both the United States and the international community were selected in each category for the importance and value of their research proposal, each receiving research grants of $45,000.
The 2006 Young Minds in Psychiatry Awards winners are Daniel Smith, M.D., United Kingdom (bipolar disorder); Marcia Kauer Sant’Anna, M.D., Brazil (bipolar disorder); Zubin Bhagwagar, M.D., United States (bipolar disorder); Carmine M. Pariante, M.D., United Kingdom (schizophrenia); Maristela Schaufelberger Spanghero, M.D., Brazil (schizophrenia); Rakesh Karmacharya, M.D., United States (schizophrenia).
Dr. Daniel Smith is with Cardiff University School of Medicine in London and will use his Young Minds Award to explore the link between major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BD) by testing known candidate genes for mood disorder for association with fundamental mood disorder tempermanents. Associations will be tested between patients with MDD in comparison with an equal number of patients with BD and will be compared with a control group.
Dr. Marcia Kauer Sant’Anna from Universidade Federal Do Rio Grande Do Sul in Porto Alegre, Brazil will examine links between cognitive impairment and bipolar disorder. Her study will determine the magnitude of cognitive impairment in first episode mania patients and to ascertain if cognitive impairment in this population correlates with reduced Brain Derived Neurotropic Factor (BDNF) levels either secondary to Val66Met polymorphism of BDNF gene or early trauma.
Dr. Zubin Bhagwagar is with the Yale School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry. He will study the glutamatergic modulation of mood in bipolar disorder by investigating the acute antidepressant effects of ketamine in patients with bipolar disorder who are currently depressed and have failed to respond to conventional treatments.
Dr. Carmine M. Pariante’s research will focus on understanding the hormonal stress response in first-episode psychosis. He will recruit a large number of patients at their first psychotic episode and healthy controls in order to examine the relationship between hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis activity and brain structures. He is with the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College of London.
Dr. Maristela Schaufelberger Spanghero is with the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. She will conduct a longitudinal neuroimaging study of first- episode psychosis in Brazil. Her research will attempt to characterize the pattern of progression of gray matter abnormalities in patients with schizophrenia compared with healthy control groups.
Dr. Rakesh Karmacharya, who is conducting his research at Harvard University, McLean Hospital proposes using human peripheral blood-derived neural progenitor cells to study clozapine’s effects in treating schizophrenia in comparison with the effects produced by other antipsychotic medications.
“AstraZeneca is very proud to support the ‘Young Minds’ research awards, which address a critical need in psychiatry -- the shortage of promising researchers undertaking the challenges of mental health,” said Mark Scott, Ph.D. , Executive Director for Development, AstraZeneca. “We believe these promising medical scholars will make a significant contribution to enhancing the science of the mind in the years to come.”
ABOUT YOUNG MINDS IN PSYCHIATRY INTERNATIONAL AWARDS PROGRAM
Young Minds in Psychiatry is an APA career development research initiative sponsored by AstraZeneca that has been running since 2002 (the first award recipients applied in October of 2002 and received their awards during the APA annual meeting in May 2003). To date, 25 young researchers have been awarded research grants. The following distinguished, independent steering committee is responsible for reviewing proposals and advising on those to be funded.
United States Review Committee Nancy C. Andreasen, Charles Schulz, M.D. Robert N. Golden, M.D. M.D. University of Iowa Department of University of Hospitals & Clinics Psychiatry Wisconsin-Madison Psychiatry University of Minnesota Stephen R. Marder, M.D. Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, M.D. Alan F. UCLA Neuropsychiatric Massachusetts General Schatzberg, M.D. Institute Hospital Stanford University School of Medicine International Review Committee Gerhard Heinze, M.D. Michael Phillips, M.D. Dilip V. Jeste, M.D. Instituto Nacional Beijing Hui Long University of California de Psiquiatria Ramo Guan Hospital -San Diego de la Fuente Valery N. Krasnov, M.D. Heinz Katschnig, M.D. Alan F. Schatzburg, M.D. Moscow Research Institute Medical University Stanford University of Psychiatry of Vienna School of Medicine
ABOUT THE AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION
The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society whose more than 38,000 physician members specialize in diagnosis, treatment, prevention and research of mental illnesses including substance use disorders. Visit the APA at http://www.psych.org and http://www.HealthyMinds.org .
ABOUT ASTRAZENECA
AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of $26.47 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, neuroscience, respiratory, oncology and infection products. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.
In the United States, AstraZeneca is a $12.44 billion healthcare business with more than 12,000 employees. For nearly three decades, AstraZeneca has offered drug assistance programs side by side with its medicines, and over the past five years, has provided over $3 billion in savings to more than 1 million patients throughout the US and Puerto Rico. AstraZeneca has been named one of the “100 Best Companies for Working Mothers” by Working Mother magazine and is the only large pharmaceutical company named to FORTUNE magazine’s 2007 list of “100 Best Companies to Work For.” In 2006, for the fifth consecutive year, Science magazine named AstraZeneca a “Top Employer” on its ranking of the world’s most respected biopharmaceutical employers.
For more information about AstraZeneca, please visit: http://www.astrazeneca-us.com .
AstraZeneca
CONTACT: Media, Abigail Baron, +1-302-885-3578,abigail.baron@astrazeneca.com , or Jim Minnick, +1-302-886-5135,jim.minnick@astrazeneca.com , both of AstraZeneca, USA, James Read ofAstraZeneca, International, +1-302-885-9944, james.read@astrazeneca.com ;or American Psychiatric Association, Office of Communications and PublicAffairs, +1-703-907-8640, press@psych.org
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