NARSAD distinguished Investigator Grantee, Aaron T. Beck, the 'Father of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)’ proved that it can be used to help treat the 'negative' symptoms of schizophrenia. CBT was invented by Beck in the 1960s as a method of talk therapy aimed at solving problems related to dysfunctional emotional behaviors and cognitions - primarily associated with...
In 2010, Scientific Council Member Rene Hen, Ph.D., professor of pharmacology in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at Columbia University, and a researcher at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, led a team of researchers to a groundbreaking discovery in understanding why antidepressants may fail to relieve symptoms of depression for up to 50 percent of...
A groundbreaking twenty-five year study shows that there is a correlation between the thinning of the cortex and the development of depression. The cortex is the part of the brain responsible for higher thinking and functioning, located in the right hemisphere. Leading this study was three-time NARSAD Distinguished Investigator, Myrna M. Weissman, Ph.D., Professor of...
In 2008, Scientific Council Members Mary-Claire King, Ph.D. from the University of Washington—widely known for her discovery of a mutation in a gene she named BRCA1 that led to powerful breast cancer diagnostics—and Judith Rapoport, M.D. of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) led research teams discovering rare genetic mutations found in high volumes in people with...
Arturas Petronis, M.D., Ph.D. from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health in Toronto, led researchers in a study, discovering that biochemical (or ‘epigenetic’) changes can impact the ‘expression’ of genes common in patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Focusing his work on the genomes of identical twins (who share the same exact sequences of DNA) where only one...
