Young Minds in Psychiatry International Awards Programme - 2006 Winners

The ‘Young Minds in Psychiatry’ awards program supported by an educational grant from AstraZeneca (NYSE:AZN) is 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 2006 Young Minds in Psychiatry Awards were presented on May 22nd 2007, at the 160th Annual Meeting of the APA in San Diego. Six winners were selected across two research categories – schizophrenia and bipolar disorder – and the winners were:

Daniel Smith, MD, United Kingdom (bipolar disorder)

Dr Daniel Smith is with Cardiff University School of Medicine 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.

Carmine M. Pariante, MD, United Kingdom (schizophrenia)

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.

Marcia Kauer Sant'Anna, MD, Brazil (bipolar disorder)

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.

Maristela Schaufelberger Spanghero, MD, Brazil (schizophrenia)

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.

Zubin Bhagwagar, MD, United States (bipolar disorder)

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 accute antidepressant effects of katamine in patients with bipolar disorder who are currently depressed and have failed to respond to conventional treatments.

Rakesh Karmacharya, MD, United States (schizophrenia)

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.

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 a career development award of $45,000.