Sex Differences in Mental Health Disorders

Until recently, an overwhelming amount of work on mental health disorders was conducted exclusively in males. This has led to a lack of understanding of sex differences in these disorders. We need to understand how they occur, are expressed, and can be treated in both men and women. Our work focuses on understanding where sex differences occur and where they do not, and how we can use this understanding to help affected individuals.

Watch webinar recording:

2023 Leading Research Achievements

We are pleased to present you with the 2022 Leading Research Achievements by BBRF Grantees, Prizewinners & Scientific Council Members.

View our 2023 Leading Research Achievements

This list illustrates some of the major research achievements from 2023.

In 2023 we funded more than $10.2 million in Young Investigator Grants. We expect the grant recipient scientists will make exciting discoveries over the next few years. Grantees are selected by our Scientific Council.

Optimizing Deep Brain Stimulation for Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Circuit-based models of brain function have helped to identify neuropathologies that likely underlie certain psychiatric symptoms. Such insights have suggested highly specific targets for deep-brain stimulation, a therapy in which surgically implanted electrodes modify the activity of neural circuits thought to be involved in pathology. Treatment success, however, depends in part on personalized adjustment of DBS after the electrodes have been implanted.

Allison C. Waters, Ph.D.

Allison C. Waters, Ph.D.
Position

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics

University

Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai

Grant or Prize

2019 Young Investigator Grant

Dr. Waters is a clinical neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY, NY. Her laboratory is embedded in the Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics where the shared mission is to advance treatment with electrical neuromodulation for psychiatric and neurological disorders. Dr. Waters was a recipient of a NARSAD Young Investigator Grant for her project entitled, “A personalized cortical read-out of deep brain stimulation for obsessive-compulsive disorder.”

In Childhood Anxiety, CBT Helps By Normalizing Hyperactive Brain Circuits, Study Finds

A new study of brain network and circuit responses in young people with anxiety disorders who were treated with a course of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) suggests how the therapy helps to normalize some but not all irregularities that are likely involved in generating anxiety symptoms. This in turn suggests how CBT and possible adjuncts to it might be modified to improve outcomes.