International / Schizophrenia Category

Title of Winning Proposal: Do Typical and Atypical Antipsychotics Have Different Effects on Brain Function? A Study Using fMRI

Dr. Paola Dazzan is a Clinical Lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry (London), and a Consultant Psychiatrist in a First Episode Psychosis Team. She obtained her Medical Degree in Italy, and then moved to the United Kingdom to complete her specialist training and pursue an academic career. Dr. Dazzan’s interest in neuroimaging started in 1997, while working as a visiting fellow with Dr. P. Barta at Johns Hopkins University. 

In 1998, she joined the Institute of Psychiatry and started working with Professor R.M. Murray. There, she was trained in the use of voxel-based methods of image analysis, under the supervision of Professor P.K. McGuire. This has provide Dr. Dazzan with the opportunity to develop her own line of research on the anatomical correlates of minor neurological abnormalities, on the effect of antipsychotics on brain structure and on progressive brain structural changes following the first psychotic episode. This work was the basis of her Ph.D., which she completed in 2005.

The Young Minds in Psychiatry Award will allow Dr. Dazzan to expand this work using both structural and functional neuroimaging.