BrainStorms 2022 Winter Edition

Fall | Winter 2022

The publication of the University of Miami Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

A Mes s age f r om t he Chair

Dear Friends, Welcome to our 20th edition of BrainStorms! For the past six years, we have produced this publication to keep you up to date on how our physician-scientists are contributing to the field of mental health, transforming lives through teaching, research, and service. We aim to provide timely, relevant content on the latest issues in psychiatry and behavioral sciences, bringing awareness to our South Florida community—patients, supporters, peers—and beyond. In this time, we have easily packed the pages with news and information, and this milestone issue is no different.

As I reflect upon 2022, I am in awe of everything our Department has accomplished. We’re developing new programs and strengthening our divisions, notably Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Addiction Psychiatry, in alignment with our strategic plan to enhance subspecialty programs. As the need for care continues to mount, we’re pleased to welcome new clinicians to these emergent fields and expand our abilities to care for even more people in need.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of the first-ever Psychiatry Continuing Education Program at the Miller School! Our inaugural conference, Living Legends in Psychopharmacology: From Evidence Base to Advances in Treatment, will take place on March 31-April 1, 2023. We’ve assembled a legendary group of faculty—including several from our Department—to teach at the two-day hybrid seminar. We hope you’ll join us in-person in Boston or participate virtually. Register by January 10, 2023 to receive the special early-bird rate (p.2).

Our Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging and Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences are thriving. They have assiduously dedicated themselves to fostering community outreach and engagement. Their efforts are unquestionably bringing education and awareness to South Florida about some of today’s most urgent brain health matters including Alzheimer’s disease and dementia and how insufficient sleep may increase the propensity for individuals to develop other health problems, particularly in minority communities. Our UHealth Tourette Center of Excellence is enrolling participants in several new studies and clinical trials, designed to uncover connections between gut health and tics, and deliver new treatments and therapies to improve the lives of children and adolescents living with these disorders. Read more about the featured studies on p.11.

Concurrently, our Media and Innovation Lab (MIL) has joined forces with a digital health platform to examine the clinical efficacy of digital mental health care services for students K-12 in four Florida school districts. The primary objective of the study is to assess whether preventive, self-guided technology with care escalation is effective in increasing social-emotional intelligence in school-aged children (p.8).

This year, we saw a record number of students, residents, and faculty present at conferences across the nation and earn recognition for their contributions to science (p.18). Our investigators have received millions of dollars through both federally and privately funded grants, proving the subjects they are pursuing hold high potential for prolific discoveries.

We expect to keep the momentum going and look forward to sharing more with you in our 21st issue! Your support inspires us to continue growing and innovating to provide the best-in-class care for those in need.

On behalf of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, warm wishes to you and yours for a healthy and joyous holiday season.

Sincerely, Barbara

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences Launches New Continuing Education Program

Featuring Legendary Psychopharmacology Faculty

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine is sponsoring and leading the Living Legends in Psychopharmacology: From Current Evidence Base to Advances in Treatment continuing medical education conference, from March 31 to April 1, 2023, in Boston, Mass. The conference will be offered in-person and via live streaming. It will feature national legends in psychopharmacology who will address evidence-based treatments, as well as current and emerging treatments for nearly every subspecialty area in psychopharmacology, from pediatrics to geriatrics, according to Course Director and Co-Moderator Barbara Coffey, M.D., M.S., Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School.

Clinicians who work with patients with psychiatric disorders, including psychiatrists, psychologists, general practitioners, pediatricians and nurse practitioners, will be among the approximately 500 conference attendees.

“Top-notch speakers will address not only conditions like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, but also topics like treatment-resistant depression, including innovative treatments such as ketamine and psychedelics,” Dr. Coffey said. “All of us in practice have the challenge of dealing with patients who are already on two or three different medications and aren’t responding. What do you do next? This happens particularly around depression.”

Other sessions will tackle the latest information about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ( PTSD ), substance use disorders, the genetics of psychiatric disorders, as well as delve into the interfaces among neurological and medical disorders, such as cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric disorders.

Something that makes this in-person meeting stand out is its emphasis on encouraging interaction between the faculty and attendees.

“We have allotted 45 minutes to an hour for each section to have those discussions,” Dr. Coffey said. “If someone has a particular patient that they’re struggling with and we haven’t touched on that in the content of the talks, he or she will have the opportunity to ask the panel questions specifically about cases, while respecting HIPAA laws, of course.”

“The new Living Legends in Psychopharmacology conference is a great example of continuing medical education that is state-of-the-art, evidence-based and designed to improve patient care,” said Barry Issenberg, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Michael S. Gordon Chair of Medical Education and Senior Associate Dean for Continuing Medical Education at the Miller School. “This is consistent with the Miller School’s mission to enhance the quality of education that will promote excellence in health care. The combination of interactive presentations with question-and-answer panel discussions will provide opportunities for participants to engage directly with leading experts in psychopharmacology so they are able to apply their learning directly to their patient care.”

Among the Miller School faculty speaking at the conference, Dr. Coffey, who is also Chief of the Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Miller School, will present “Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology: Current Treatment for Best Practices.”

“There has been a great burgeoning of psychiatric illness in the last couple of years, especially for younger people with the influx of kids coming to emergency rooms with suicidal thoughts, increased depression, tremendous anxiety and social isolation,” Dr. Coffey said.

E lizabeth Crocco, M.D., Associate Clinical Professor and Chief of Geriatric Psychiatry will present “Geriatric Psychopharmacology.” Philip D. Harvey, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatrywill present “Tackling Unsolved Problems in the Pharmacological Treatment of Schizophrenia:

Cognitive Impairment, Negative Symptoms, and Partial Treatment Response.” Dr. Harvey is a recipient of the Schizophrenia International Research Society Clinical Scientist Distinguished Contributions award and Alexander Gralnick Schizophrenia Research award from the American Psychiatric Foundation.

Other conference faculty include academic leaders in psychiatry from Harvard Medical School, Yale School of Medicine, Stanford University, University of California, San Diego and Johns Hopkins.

Charles Nemeroff, M D., Ph.D., who is co-directing and co-moderating with Dr. Coffey, is former Professor and Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School and today is Matthew P. Nemeroff P rofessor and Chair, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Dell Medical School, the University of Texas at Austin.

Living Legends in Psychopharmacology is an opportunity for the Miller School to take the lead in mental health and psychiatric education, with this conference the first in a series of medical education courses being planned for 2023.

“We want to extend our reach, not just to psychiatrists and psychologists but to other medical practitioners who are seeing patients with psychiatric symptoms in their medical practices,” Dr. Coffey said, explaining the timing for mental health educational opportunities is crucial due to the post-COVID epidemic of mental health needs in this country.

“This includes not just those who have been touched by the pandemic directly but others—friends and families who have been isolated, maybe suffered losses,” she said. “There has been a great increase of psychiatric illness in the last couple of years. We need to be up to date in the evidencebased treatments and some of the newer things that we can do to help these patients.”

2022 Neuroscience Retreat Focuses on Collaboration as Key to New Discoveries

Multidisciplinary collaboration is essential for life-changing neuroscience discoveries, innovative technologies, clinical therapies, and preventive disease strategies, according to participants at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s 2022 Neuroscience Retreat.

W. Dalton Dietrich III, Ph.D., moderated the daylong October conference at the Lois Pope LIFE Center, which covered the gamut of neuroscience research and a wide range of challenging problems, from spinal cord and traumatic brain injuries to neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body Dementia, as well as preventive and protective strategies for brain health.

There are more than 170 neuroscience projects underway in various departments, centers, and institutes throughout the Miller School. A major goal of the retreat was to discuss potential for a future dedicated, integrated neuroscience center, and the importance of team science partnerships.

“We have an abundance of outstanding scientists in this field, and we achieve our best by working together,” said Henri Ford, M.D., M.H.A., Dean and Chief Academic O fficer, welcoming researchers from dozens of Miller School programs, centers, and institutes to the retreat. “We need to foster interactions that will exponentially increase productivity and yield seminal discoveries that will be translated into clinical interventions to help humanity. We want to be a beacon of hope, and this is the next step in turning that dream into reality.”

Brain Health and Aging

In the “Brain Health, Aging, and Degenerative Diseases” presentation, David Loewenstein, Ph.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging ( CNSA ), focused on the work of the CNSA and ongoing team science with numerous UM departments and centers. “We have developed cognitive stress tests that can detect pre-clinical Alzheimer’s disease that are being commercialized and are now used all over the world,” said Dr. Loewenstein. “The tests are designed to challenge the cognitive system and have proven to be able to identify subtle memory deficits among pre-symptomatic individuals with biomarker confirmation that are not detected by traditional cognitive measures.”

Research at the CNSA is meaningful and robust. Across all the Center’s funded studies, scientists actively follow more than 1,000 older adults longitudinally; more than 70% are from underserved populations including Hispanic/Latino/Black/ African American cultural groups. A major current focus is on underserved and underrepresented minority older adults.

Dr. Loewenstein also acknowledged the collaborative work being done by 1Florida Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at UM, a major statewide consortium that is one of 31 centers in the U.S. that are funded by the National Institutes of Health. “It is team science that will guide us,” he said.

The CNSA is committed to four central missions:

l Change the current understanding of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related dementias (ADRD) from being incurable, inevitable, and largely untreatable to a new reality in which these diseases are curable, preventable, and treatable;

l Continued development of novel cognitive stress paradigms for the early assessment of cognitive change in pre-clinical AD;

l Be a leader in the University of Miami’s efforts to become a national hub and international destination center for AD and ADRD ; and

l Address the important issue of research and access to underserved and underrepresented minority older adults in AD and ADRD research.

Dr. David Loewenstein, fourth from right

Researchers Receive $1.86M Grant to Study Relationship Between Menopause, DNA Damage,

“Alzheimer’s is a complex, polygenic disease, and once it takes hold, is extremely difficult to treat,” said Dr. Volmar, Director of the Research Laboratory. “The solution is almost certainly prevention, and this grant will help us understand disease progression in women and hopefully lead to early interventions for those at greater risk.”

Researchers have long known that Alzheimer’s disease affects men and women differently. Almost two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women, and quite often, the drugs being tested to fight the disease affect men and women differently. In addition, both menopause and aging can generate DNA damage. Nobody knows precisely how this damage impacts brain function, but the Miller School team is hoping to find out.

“There are major sex-dependent differences,” said Dr. Volmar. “Women show symptoms earlier and suffer longer If we want t o prevent Alzheimer’s, we need to figure out what’s happening early, before post-menopause. Nobody else is doing that right now from the DNA damage and epigenetics perspective.”

Replicating Menopausal Changes

Previous animal studies in Alzheimer’s models have completely removed ovaries, abruptly changing hormonal dynamics. The Miller School team will instead take a more gradual approach, trying to replicate the changes that happen during menopause.

“If we remove the ovaries, the model goes straight to post-menopause,” said Dr. Volmar. “We want to know what’s happening early and throughout that progression. If we find good biomarkers, and a woman in her 20s expresses those biomarkers, we could intervene early and hopefully have greater success.”

In addition to Drs. Volmar and Wahlestedt, two Ph.D. candidates will make major contributions to this research: Jessica Dennison in the neuroscience program and Natalie Ricciardi in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. Dennison was recently awarded an F31 student fellowship from the NIH/NIA to study the role menopause plays in Alzheimer’s.

Catching Alzheimer’s Early

Once the team has collected data, in collaboration with Augur Precision Medicine, they will compare their results to a large U.K. biobank that has been collecting blood biomarkers from Alzheimer’s patients. By comparing the two datasets, they hope to pinpoint the molecular signals that could indicate a woman is at much higher risk for Alzheimer’s.

Catching the disease early could give clinicians greater opportunities to slow it down. Younger patients tend to have more robust DNA repair systems, and that could play an important role in keeping them healthy.

“We’d like to be able to prime the body’s repair mechanisms,” said Dr. Volmar. “Ideally, if someone had a molecular signature that showed increased risk for Alzheimer’s, we could boost their DNA repair enzymes and really slow the disease down.”

Aresearch team in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences led by Claude-Henry Volmar, Ph.D., and Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D., have received a $1.86 million National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA) R01 grant to study how menopause generates DNA damage and whether that increases a woman’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. The ultimate goal is to identify biomarkers that could detect increased Alzheimer’s risk at an early age.

and Alzheimer’s

(from left) Claes Wahlestedt, M.D., Ph.D.; Natalie Ricciardi, Ph.D. candidate; Jessica Dennison, Ph.D. candidate; and Claude­Henry Volmar, Ph.D.

Dr. Elizabeth Crocco and Dr. Zelde

Author Book Chapter on Dementia

Espinel

Triple Play 5K Presented by UHealth: Race Home for a Great Cause

Dr. Elizabeth Crocco, Director of the UM Memory Disorders Clinic in our CNSA, and Dr. Zelde Espinel, Assistant Professor, have contributed contributed to a book called Taking Care of You, related o dementia. As experts in memory disorders and geriatric psychiatry, Dr. Crocco and Dr. Espinel were personally chosen by the editors to author parts of the book.

“The chapter on dementia is not only a great overview of the diagnosis, management and prevention of this common disease, it also discusses why dementia matters to women. Women are not only more likely to suffer dementia later in life than men, but they are also much more likely to become a care provider for a family member.” —Dr. Elizabeth Crocco

IIn November, UHealth and the Marlins Foundation teamed up to host the Triple Play 5K, a family-friendly event benefiting UHealth research for brain health and mental wellness. Participants ran and walked through the ballpark until they reached the finish line at home plate on the field of loanDepot park.

Those who supported the event could choose to donate to research in Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s or ALS, mental health or stroke awareness. The event raised $50,000 to be shared among all five areas. Dr. Crocco and Dr. Espinel represented the Department and spoke about the importance of supporting mental health.

Dr. Rosie Curiel Cid Presents on Cognitive Stress Tests at 2022

Alzheimer’s Association International Conference

Rosie Curiel Cid, Psy.D., Chief of Cross-cultural Neuropsychology in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging, discussed the Cognitive Stress Test (CST)—an innovative tool designed by scientists in our CNSA—to differentiate cognitively unimpaired adults from those who show pre-Mild Cognitive Impairment (pre-MCI) and amnestic MCI (aMCI). She also addressed how the stress test approach may have different effects based on race and ethnicity, a core area the CNSA is focusing on in current research. Dr. Curiel Cid emphasized,“The Cognitive Stress Test does not cause stress or distress, but it does stress the cognitive system enough for you to pick up on early deficits.”

After AAIC 2022, Neurology Live caught up with Dr. Curiel Cid to review findings from the conference. There were a number of notable takeaways, including a higher percentage of intrusion errors in the aMCI group, which confirmed significant difficulties with inhibition, source memory, and monitoring. Additionally, the findings represented the first

data that older adults with aMCI and pre-MCI have deficits related to their ability to recover from proactive semantic interference despite repeated opportunities to learn. The study investigators, including Dr. Curiel Cid, concluded that the tool and data need to be validated in a larger sample that includes biomarker data to correlate with the results.

Media and Innovation Lab to Study Impact of Digital Mental Health Resources Among Florida High School Students

The collaborative STEMSEL initiative includes mental health education for school leaders, access to and study of digital resources to support students’ social and emotional learning. The Media and Innovation Lab (MIL) in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is embarking on a new effort to evaluate the clinical efficacy of digital mental health care services for K-12 students, teachers, and staff in four Florida school districts, at a time when children’s mental health concerns have reached emergency status. The centerpiece of the STEMSEL initiative includes a clinical evaluation of the Neolth digital mental health platform among a population of more than 7,000 Florida students in grades 6-12.

The primary objective of the S TEMSEL clinical study is to assess whether Neolth, a preventative, self-guided mental health support technology with care escalation, is effective in increasing social and emotional intelligence in school-aged children. In previous studies, Neolth has demonstrated clinical reductions in stress, depression, anxiety, and stigma, as well as increases in self-efficacy. T he University will make the Neolth platform available to students at Florida schools in four districts: including South Walton Academy in Walton County, Palmetto Bay Academy in Miami-Dade County, Lakeland Institute of Learning in Polk County, and Florida Virtual School in Orange County.

In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association issued a joint statement classifying the pandemic-related decline in child and adolescent mental health as a national emergency. More recently, the 2022 KIDS C OUNT ® Data B ook, compiled by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, reported a 26% increase in children experiencing anxiety or depression between 2016 and 2020, “representing 1.5 million more children truggling to make it through the day.”

The STEMSEL program, abbreviated for STEM-socialemotional learning designed to increase the understanding of and access to digitally based, on-demand social-emotional

learning (SEL) platforms by studying the impact of these new resources on the mental well-being of children, and providing professional development and support for teachers, administrators, and school staff, and resources for parents and caregivers.

“A foundational pillar of The MIL is to engage, serve, and educate our local and global communities about health innovations, and enable them to co-create and consume new technologies,” said Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., Founding Director of The MIL and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School of Medicine. “Given the mental health crisis our children are facing, it is vital that we explore ways to make effective mental health services more available and accessible to all. This program has the potential to shift the care delivery paradigm in support of our most precious resource—our children.”

Through The MIL’s partnership with Neolth, participating school districts will have free and open access to the on-demand SEL activities and community delivered through the Neolth app. The Neolth program content is designed to help students build resilience through personalized relaxation techniques, SEL practices, and increased emotional awareness. The community module within the app includes videos from clinicians that educate students about mental health; vlogs (video blogs) by students discussing their own mental health,

to break down stigma; and livestreamed community events to connect students across the country. Connecting with peers invites students to understand their shared experiences and encourages them to seek help rather than suffer in silence.

Researchers at The MIL will carefully study program implementation and conduct independent research to evaluate the program’s impact to establish new pathways for expanding access to digital mental health tools as part of its service and outreach mission.

“Dr. Seixas and his team have deep expertise in providing mental health support through the use of digital health tools. His work has focused on precision neuroscience approaches to personalized behavioral interventions, which is highly aligned with Neolth’s scientific underpinnings,” said Katherine Grill Ph.D., founder and CEO of Neolth. “Working with the University of Miami to both implement and evaluate our

AWS highlighted Dr. Seixas’s digital twin project, which analyzes the link between poor sleep, environmental factors, and chronic illness, using off-the-shelf wearable and nearable devices. The goal of the research is to study associations between an individual’s underlying biomedical health parameters, environmental factors such as air quality, light and noise pollution, and conditions such as sleep apnea, heart disease, and dementia in underserved and disenfranchised communities.

digital solution will help us improve our platform’s utility and reach in Florida. Adding the professional development component is fantastic, because education about best practices for student mental health and digital tools is sorely needed following COVID.”

As part of the S TEMSEL initiative, The MIL has launched a companion educational outreach program to schools throughout the state to increase awareness of student mental health needs and the use of digital tools within schools. Under this aspect of the program, The MIL is hosting webinars with leaders from some of the top digital mental health platforms, including Calm, Headspace, Moshi Kids, Neolth, and Little Otter.

MIL researchers plan to add more schools and districts to this study throughout the 2022-23 academic year. All schools will receive implementation support from the MIL team at the Miller School and Neolth.

Amazon Web Services Honors Dr. Azizi Seixas for Driving Health Care Innovation

Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., Founding Director of the Media and Innovation Lab (The MIL) has been chosen by Amazon Web Services (AWS) as one of 10 U.S. Education Champions. The inaugural program showcases innovators driving digital transformation with cloud computing in the areas of teaching, learning, research, and academic medicine.

Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., third from left

NIH Funds Study on How Personalized Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment Impacts Brain Health Among Blacks

The National Institute on Aging has awarded two of our faculty a five-year grant for nearly $3.8 million to study how access to personalized obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) treatment might impact the brain health of Black OSA patients in South Florida.

“There is scientific evidence that brain changes suggestive of Alzheimer’s disease occur among patients with OSA, and impairments in memory, executive function, attention, and vigilance are common in these patients,” said Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences (TSCS) and Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School. “Fortunately, OSA treatment can normalize these biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and improve cognitive function, as well as reduce systemic inflammation and improve insulin sensitivity, blood pressure, and serum lipids and lipoproteins.”

But little is known about the impact of OSA treatment among Black patients, a group with disproportionate burdens of OSA and Alzheimer’s disease, according to Dr. Jean-Louis, co-principal investigator (PI) for the study Personalized OSA treatment and effects on AD biomarkers and cognition among blacks, also called the P RAISE study. The other co-PI is Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., Associate Director of the TSCS and A ssociate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

This study aims to help close the knowledge gap by recruiting a diverse group of 330 newly diagnosed Black/African American OSA patients, ages 60 to 85 years, in South Florida.

Personalizing with Digital Technology

Drs. Jean-Louis and Seixas will assess the effectiveness of a novel digital technology developed at the Miller School to make OSA care more personalized for Black patients, according to Dr. Seixas, who is Founding Director of The Media and Innovation Lab (The MIL) at the Miller School.

“This technology captures personalized data using ecological momentary assessment—a technique that can ascertain real-time and contextual responses from patients— to understand unique barriers and facilitators of adherence to sleep apnea treatment. It also navigates patients throughout the treatment journey through personalized support to optimize sleep apnea treatment adherence,” Dr. Seixas said.

Miller School investigators will determine whether OSA treatment improves Alzheimer’s disease biomarkers and cognitive function among Black patients and improves their health-related quality of life, daytime functioning, and sleep quality.

“A unique characteristic of the TSCS relates to its focus on cardiovascular and brain health outcomes of individuals from disadvantaged and underserved communities,” Dr. Jean-Louis said. “This new research project grant (R01) PRAISE brings us closer to our goal of implementing solution-focused interventions to address the unique impediments to adequate access to sleep health care among Blacks. More specifically, it aims to navigate Blacks in South Florida presenting with untreated sleep apnea to a personalized digital health solution that will enhance their ability to make autonomous decisions regarding the sleep apnea care pathway that is ideal for their own unique circumstances.”

Enhancing adherence to sleep apnea treatment, which remains a daunting challenge, will enable researchers to assess whether treatment leads to reduction of biomarkers of inflammation and A lzheimer’s disease and improvement of neurocognitive profile, according to Dr. Jean-Louis.

“This new award ensures that Black patients with sleep apnea benefit fully from the advances made in the field of sleep medicine regarding improvement in overall physical health and quality of life,” Dr. Jean-Louis said.

Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D. Azizi Seixas, Ph.D.

Featured Research Studies

Clinical trials are the backbone of evidence-based medicine. They evaluate the safety and effectiveness of a medical strategy, treatment, or device. Clinical trials provide an opportunity for the general public to participate in and contribute to the process of developing novel treatments for a variety of conditions.

The results from these trials provide the data necessary to assist in future medical decision-making.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is dedicated to generating the scientific knowledge behind the clinical best practices we incorporate in the treatment of complex mental health conditions.

The Behavioral Research Assessment Center (BRAC) is the research hub that fulfills the Department’s mission to develop the next line of treatments. For more information about participating in open clinical trials, please email brac@miami.edu or call 305.243.5840.

Microbiome and Tic Disorders Study

We are recruiting for a research study to find out whether changes in the microbiome, or gut bacteria, have any effect in Chronic Tic Disorder severity. We want to explore if and how changes in gut health may be associated withtic flare-ups. Children with or without chronic disorders may be eligible. We are looking for children between the ages of 8 and 15 with or without chronic tic disorders. Participants will be expected to attend threepatient visits in the spanof two months; complete questionnaires; have blood drawn; and provide a urine/stool collection. Compensation will be provided for participating. For more information, please call 305.243.6127 or email ucybr@med.miami.edu.

Tic Disorders

Genomics Study

We are committed to in a future with better therapies for our patients with tic disorders. One way to reach this goal is by learning more about the genes responsible for causing tic disorders. Thanks to advancing science, we can now identify some genes responsible for causing

tics within families. This may include families with or without several affected relatives, or individuals with a tic disorder and both of their biological parents.

Do you or your child have a diagnosis of a tic disorder? Is your family free of suspected or diagnosed tic disorders? Are your biological parents able to attend the study visit? You may be eligible to participate in our research! Enrollees will be asked to complete a questionnaire and attend one visit at our study site. During the visit, participants can receive a free, full evaluation and a single blood draw will be taken from each family member.

With this study, we aim to identify the genetic factors that cause Tourette Syndrome using a family-based approach. Your participation is valuable and will contribute to our understanding of Tourette Syndrome—and may help develop new, efficacious therapies in the future. For more information, please call 305.243.6127 or email ucybr@med.miami.edu

RECONNECT Study

We are investigating the effectiveness and safety of a CBD (cannabidiol)

transdermal gel in children and adolescents with Fragile X Syndrome (FSX). Under Zynerba Pharmaceuticals, the CBD gel can be applied to the skin (called transdermal delivery), to provide consistent, controlled levels of CBD in the blood when it is given twice daily.

To date, the CBD gel has been investigated in healthy adult volunteers, people diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), and people with FXS. There are no medicines currently approved by health authorities to treat FXS and we aim to find new therapies.

We are looking to enroll patients between the ages of 3 and 18. After the screening period, participation in the study may last up to 25 weeks. Participants will be expected to attend four in-person visits and four remote visits during this time and complete questionnaires, blood draws, an ECG, and record vital signs. For more information, please call 305.243.3110 or email Daniela Martinez, Clinical Research Coordinator, at dmartinez2@med.miami.edu.

Faculty Awards

Dr. Dante Durand Recognized by Peruvian Congress for Outstanding Work in Clinical Psychiatry, Research

As part of the celebration of the 200 years of the Peruvian Independence and the Day of the Peruvians Abroad, Dante Durand, M.D., M.B.A., Vice Chair for Clinical Services of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Chief Medical O fficer of Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital, was awarded a medal from the Peruvian Congress in recognition of his outstanding work in the field of clinical psychiatry and research. Dr. Durand received this distinction by the office of the Congressman Jorge Zeballos Aponte, in recognition of his professional trajectory and success abroad. The award was given by Congresswoman Maria Del Carmen Alva Prieto and the closure of the ceremony was held by President of the Peruvian Congress Jose Williams Zapata. The Ambassadors of Chile, Argentina, Mexico and members of the diplomatic corps from United States, Russia, China, and Colombia were among the attendees.

Dr. Deborah Jones Weiss Receives 2022 Dean’s Annual Faculty Award for Mentoring

In September, Henri R. Ford, M.D., M.H.A., Dean and C hief Academic O fficer of the Miller School, presented awards to 11 faculty members who were nominated by their peers. More than 50 faculty were nominated, and each nomination included two letters of recommendation from colleagues. The selection committee was comprised of members of the Dean’s senior cabinet, past winners, and senior leadership.

In nurturing the careers of future physicians, mentorship is a vital component of the Miller School’s educational mission. Deborah Jones Weiss, Ph.D., M . E d., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, received the award for mentoring women and those from underrepresented groups in science.

“Dr. Weiss spent endless hours providing advice, discussing research topics, and writing scientific proposals and manuscripts with me,” said one of Dr. Weiss’s mentees. “She always provides the right advice when navigating the research environment, submitting grants, operationalizing clinical research projects, and disseminating research findings ”

Dr. Girardin Jean-Louis Recipient of the 2022 Outstanding Contribution to Diversity, Equity, and

Inclusion Award

Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D., Director of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences, received the award from the Society of Behavioral Sleep Medicine. The award recognizes outstanding contributions and sustained commitment to excellence in the delivery of behavioral sleep medicine. Dr. Jean Louis’s research focuses extensively on sleep and circadian sciences, and how sleep deficiencies and a misalignment of the body’s internal clock impact development of cardiovascular disease, dementia, and other chronic health problems, especially in minority groups. The Center aims to look specifically at how interventions aimed at better sleep quality can improve the health of under-represented and underserved communities. Dr. Jean-Louis has received numerous honors for his work in diversity, equity, and inclusion in the science of sleep. He is widely regarded as a foremost expert in the field and holds multi-million dollar grants from federal funding agencies.

Dr. Philip Harvey Receives Best Paper of the Year Award from Japanese Society for Neuropsychopharmacology

Dr. Philip Harvey was recognized by the Japanese Society for Neuropsychopharmacology for his paper, Blonanserin versus haloperidol in Japanese patients with schizophrenia: a phase 3, 8-week, double-blind, multicenter, randomized controlled study, which was the the most highly cited paper in Neuropsychopharmacology Reports over the last three years. He received the Best Paper of the Year award when it was originally published in 2020. Blonanserin, an atypical antipsychotic medication with a novel mechanism of action, targeting the dopamine D3 receptor and serotonin 6. In Japan, where this study was conducted, haloperidol is still widely used, despite its notable side effect profile. I n this study, for which Dr. Harvey assisted with data analyses and wrote the paper, Blonanserin was found to be notably better than haloperidol in terms of tolerability, while manifesting similar efficacy for psychosis and showing significantly more improvements in negative symptoms.

Grants

Florida Department of Health Funds Department’s New Behavioral Health Hub

Armed with a $1.4 M grant from the Florida Department of Health, the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has launched the Behavioral Health Hub (BHH). Composed of 10 faculty and staff, the B HH aims to close the gap between behavioral health needs and local resources at the primary care level. It serves children, adolescents, and young adults between the ages of 3 to 21 with identified behavioral health needs that cannot solely be managed at the primary care level. The program offers provide-to-provider consultations between pediatricians and behavioral health experts on our team. Importantly, it also provides pediatricians with psychology resources and recommendations to share with their patients. A thorough care coordination plan links providers to family members to review recommendations, ensuring everyone works together to find the best intervention and work toward an optimal outcome. For more information on the BHH, please email bhh@miami.edu.

science initiatives in the areas of neuroscience and aging. The grants are as follows:

Phil Harvey, Ph.D., Leonard M. Miller Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Vice Chair for Research, received a $100,000 grant for a Postdoctoral

Fellowship in Neuropsychology and Cognitive Neuroscience. This award will support the educational mission of the CNSA to train the next generation of clinician-scientists as experts in ADRD. T he CNSA’s innovative research program dedicated to the early detection of neurodegenerative diseases will serve as an ideal fellowship training environment.

Elizabeth Crocco, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Medical Director of the Memory Disorders Clinic, was awarded $350,000 for her grant Building on Expanded Registry for African Americans At Risk for Alzheimer’s disease and Related Dementias. The registry will collect foundational data that can be used by investigators interested in studying the risk for diseases of the aging brain. This effort will also work with community stakeholders to develop and deploy a culturally tailored African American Brain Health Educational Series.

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging Awarded Three Grants in Excess of $1M!

The Florida Department of Health Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Disease Research Program has awarded investigators in our CNSA multiple grants in aggregate of more than $1,000,000! The program provides researchers with opportunities to make new discoveries. The grants will support C N S A’s work in diversity, newer cognitive challenge tests and novel biomarkers and the study of comorbidities in Alzheimer’s and related disorders (ADRD). I mportantly, they will lead to further team

Rosie Curiel Cid, Psy.D., Associate Professor and Chief, Cross-cultural Neuropsychology, was awarded $350,000 for her grant Deep Phenotyping of African American Older Adults At Risk for Alzheimer’s disease. This award will expand upon the CNSA’s ongoing efforts to engage and deeply phenotype historically underrepresented older adults in Alzheimer’s disease AD) research. This study will use innovative strategies to make participation in research more accessible to African American older adults to facilitate novel cognitive testing, neuroimaging and state-of-the-art plasma biomarkers of AD and neurodegeneration.

David Loewenstein, M.D., Professor and Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging, received $350,000 for his grant Innovative Cognitive, Plasma-Based and Extra-Cellular Free-Water as Early Biomarkers of AD. The work has the potential to lead to novel insights and facilitate more sensitive and specific methods to detect AD in Hispanic/Latino and non-Hispanic older adults.

Work hard, play hard! CNSA celebrates new grants and the holiday season.

Is Having Gratitude a Superpower?

On our best days, we appreciate all that life has to offer. Being grateful for your health, your family and friends, or whatever makes you feel content, safe, and fulfilled is a powerful state of mind. Researchers have found that those who regularly reflect on these feelings are more optimistic, exercise more, and are generally in better health.

“Only recently has research verified that expressing and experiencing gratitude can bring peace of mind, more satisfying personal relationships, and happiness in general,” says Rosie E. Curiel Cid, Psy.D., a neuropsychologist with the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging.

What can gratitude do for you?

Over the last few decades, researchers have explored the connection between gratitude and well-being. They have come up with the following theories on how and why this emotion is so impactful.

Gratitude directs our attention away from toxic emotions and toward positive things we didn’t previously recognize as being important.

Gratitude and suffering are competing emotions, so you can’t experience both at the same time.

Gratitude can help you, even if you don’t share your thoughts of appreciation with others.

Acknowledging and reflecting on gratefulness may help train the brain to be more aware of and responsive to gratitude, which could help improve mental health over time.

Functional brain imaging (fMRI) studies have linked feelings of gratitude to the brain’s reward system (including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, nucleus accumbens, and dopaminergic pathways). This means that experiencing gratitude feels good.

Amp up your gratitude.

“Positive emotions can be summoned at will. Doing so builds an ‘emotional muscle’ that can develop over time,” Dr. Curiel Cid says. “Gratitude’s benefits take time to improve mental health, but an immediate benefit may be experienced by some.”

Certain actions can boost feelings of appreciation. The two most studied gratitude practices involve writing. That’s because it is far more effective than simply thinking about what you’re thankful for. You can count your blessings in a gratitude journal or write thank-you letters to others.

Psychologists found that adults who regularly wrote about their gratitude during a 10-week study reported feeling more optimistic and better about their lives. The same participants also exercised more and needed fewer doctor visits (compared to those who were prompted to write about their aggravation during the study).

Another study found that seniors who journaled daily about their gratitude reported feeling less lonely and in better health.

“Each day for at least one week, write down three things that went well for you today,” Dr. Curiel Cid says.

“Provide an explanation for why they went well. These items can be relatively small in importance (like, ‘My child did their homework without my nudging’) or relatively large (‘I earned a big promotion’). To make this exercise part of your daily routine, some find that writing before bed is helpful.”

l Give the event or item a title (for example, ‘I had enough energy today to complete my to-do list’).

l Write down precisely what happened in as much detail as possible. Include what you did or said and, if others were involved, what they did or said.

l Explain how this event made you feel at the time, how it made you feel later, and how you feel about it now as you recall it.

l Explain what you think caused this event.

l Include as much detail as you’d like.

l Write in your natural style and tone without worrying about grammar and spelling. This writing is for you, not an audience.

l If your mind drifts to negative thoughts, refocus on the good event and the positive feelings that came with it. This gets easier with practice.

Writing gratitude letters for others can remind you that you’re not alone.

Even if you’re fiercely independent and hard-working, you have someone, someplace, or something that helped you make good choices.

Expressing that appreciation on paper can shift your attention away from negative emotions (like resentment and envy) toward humility, kindness, and healing.

l On paper, describe how a person or group has positively impacted you and how grateful you are for their presence in your life or the world.

l Think beyond those who have been generous to you.

l Consider thanking the pets, places (cities, homes, schools, national parks), physical objects (plants, food, clothing), and organizations (Girl Scouts, athletic league, volunteer work) that enrich your life.

l What about those who have given you emotional support, spiritual guidance, and academic or professional encouragement over the years?

l Who taught you how to cook, dance, play an instrument or a sport, or stand up for yourself? Identify something you’re proud of, then write a gratitude letter to the source of your inspiration.

l You don’t have to share this letter with anyone. You can benefit solely from the experience of exploring positive thoughts and emotions directed outside of yourself. You may choose to express appreciation for a parent, teacher, or friend who has passed away or someone you’re no longer in touch with.

Researchers compared those who wrote gratitude letters with those who didn’t. When the letter writers experienced gratitude, they also experienced greater activation of the brain’s medial prefrontal cortex, which helps regulate attention, inhibitory control, habit formation, and memory.

“This is striking,” Dr. Curiel Cid says, “as this effect was found three months after the letter writing began. This indicates that simply expressing gratitude may have lasting effects on the brain.”

When it’s hard to be grateful…

Some people assume they have little or nothing to be thankful for. They consider themselves to be hopeless failures with bad luck or self-made successes. No one has ever handed them anything. But, regardless of your situation in life, you can still tap into the experience and benefits of gratitude.

“It is good to feel proud of your accomplishments and gratified by a job well done, but gratitude can also be experienced for the gifts we have that are not necessarily deemed to be extraordinary,” says Dr. Curiel Cid.

“In our every day, we can experience deep gratitude for the ‘ordinary.’ You can be grateful for a sense of well-being; inner peace; the ability to walk, see, or hear; and coming home to loved ones. By practicing gratitude, even for the ‘little things,’ we become more attuned to the full range of experiences that surround us, that can fill us with this positive and pro-social emotion.”

NIH Grant Fuels Miller School Research on Insufficient Sleep and Heart Disease Risk Among Hispanics

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine researcher Azizi Seixas, Ph.D., is studying whether insufficient sleep, a problem that seems to disproportionately affect Hispanic/Latinx Americans, might be helping to drive the high heart disease risk known to impact this population.

Dr. Seixas, Associate D irector of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences ( TSCS) and Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Miller School, is principal investigator of the Determinants, Outcomes,Responses, and Mechanisms of Insufficient sleep in Rural-urban settings ( DORMIR ) study, a National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded R01 grant for $3 million.

Learning more about Hispanics’ sleep quality is particularly relevant to Floridians, according to Dr. Seixas.

“More than one-third of Florida residents get insufficient sleep, which is less than seven hours daily. This estimate varies across urban and rural counties, where rural and highly dense urban areas have greater prevalence of insufficient sleepers than state’s average,” he said. “South Florida counties like Broward [urban] and Hendry [rural] have some of the highest rates of insufficient sleep in Florida at around 41%. Reports also show that Hispanics/Latinx are disproportionately affected by insufficient sleep.”

Sleep duration varies greatly by zip code in South Florida, according to the latest census figures. T he 33311 zip code, which includes Lauderdale Manors, Roosevelt Gardens, and Washington Park, has the worst sleep duration numbers in Miami-Dade and Broward, with more than half of people reporting that they get less than seven hours of sleep nightly. That’s compared to Key Biscayne, where about31% of people reported getting less than seven hours of sleep a night.

Other zip codes that came up with nearly 50% of households reporting sleep deprivation include 33313, which is southern Lauderhill; 33056, Miami Gardens, Lake Lucerne; 33054, which is Opa-locka and Bunche Park; and 33150, which includes Liberty Square, Little Haiti, Little River, and North Shore Medical Center.

Despite the alarming prevalence of insufficient sleep, not enough is known about why it happens or its impact, although there are studies suggesting that sleep quality is linked to cardiovascular health, Dr. Seixas explained.

The Hispanic/Latinx population is disproportionately burdened by cardiovascular disease—or heart disease— risk factors, including obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

“Death from cardiovascular disease is the second leading cause of death among Latinos and Latinas,” Dr. Seixas said.

While healthy diets, smoking cessation, and regular physical activity are linked to reduced heart disease risk, they have not been highly effective in reducing the heart disease burden among racial/ethnic groups—specifically, H ispanic/ Latinx, Dr. Seixas said.

“Evidence shows that insufficient sleep, which is associated with potentially life-threatening cardiovascular disease, is a key modifiable risk factor with great potential to reduce health disparities. However, it is unclear what factors contribute to insufficient sleep disparities and insufficient sleep-related cardiovascular disease burden among rural and urban Latinos and Latinas,” he said.

Closing Gaps and Disparities

The DORMIR study aims to better understand causes of insufficient sleep in rural and urban areas of Florida and the Northeast.

Dr. Seixas, who transferred the DORMIR R01 grant to the Miller School from New York University, where he was previously on the faculty, said that the study includes subjects from the New York Tri-State area, and he and his team are now recruiting more than 500 volunteers for the study in Florida.

“We will be doing a state-wide recruitment strategy throughout Florida, beginning with South Florida,” he said. “Our study will shed light on causes of poor sleep among urban and rural Hispanic/Latinx and will help us to better understand if these sleep disparities may explain the high burden of heart disease in this group.”

To conduct the research, Dr. Seixas, who leads the Miller School’s Media and Innovation Lab (MIL), will use several novel digital solutions, including the MILB ox, a remote health monitoring technology that he helped to develop.

“Thus, we will test the feasibility of a remote health

monitoring solution in underserved rural and urban areas,” he said. “The study will also create digital twins of each participant, which involves using health and environmental data collected from the MILB ox to virtually test and evaluate various treatment options and potential outcomes before applying them in the physical world.”

These novel technologies will help lead Dr. Seixas and colleagues to more individualized understanding of health and, hence, personalized solutions.

“Lastly, the study will simulate which types of solutions and public health policies may lead to improvements in sleep profiles of rural and urban communities,” he said.

Resident Recognition

Chief Resident Dr. Omar Munoz Receives Promises of Neurosciences Award

The award was presented by the Mexican Society of Neurology and Psychiatry. In 2022, the academy commemorated its 85th anniversary at their annual meeting. This was an inaugural award and Dr. Munoz was the first recipient. The society plans to present the award annually, recognizing a physician they believe represents the future of the neurosciences.

An Update on Medical Student Education

The Miller School has transitioned to an integrated form of clinical curriculum, where multiple specialties are combined to improve the educational experience for medical students and better prepare future physicians. The clerkship of Mind, Matter and Medicine (MMM) offers a collaborative 12-week model between Psychiatry and Neurology specialties.

The psychiatry discipline in the MMM has been lengthened from four weeks to a more encompassing six-week clinical rotation. Medical Students engage in a variety of clinical settings across the three hospital systems on the medical campus. Students are given opportunities to further their clinical skills by graduating from observers to interpreters, and supervised managers of psychiatric clinical presentations.

Students continue to be the focus of the rotation with their valued feedback, guiding the studentcentric experience. The newly improved and enhanced experience in Psychiatry concluded with an all-pass rate of the very first National Board of Medical Examiners’ Shelf exam of the academic year! Shelf exams are subject-based, standardized exams meant to evaluate knowledge acquisition in the seven clerkships that have been identified as the foundation of medicine: internal medicine, family medicine, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, psychiatry and neurology.

The small-scale study, Virtual Reality Gaming: Providers’ Concerns About Child Exposures to Sexual Violence in the Metaverse, aimed to gain pediatric providers’ perspectives and recommendations about child safety in what is called the “Metaverse” or virtual reality world. In these VR games, Dr. D e L uca and his team witnessed sexual acts in games approved for children, of which most on the platform are for age 13 and older.

They shared their findings with six doctors and one nurse practitioner, all of whom were universally alarmed and questioned the behavior enabled by VR gaming’s technological capabilities. The study concluded that these games posed serious risks to children; regulations and recommendations are clearly and immediately needed.

The Psychiatry Shelf exam includes several clinical and basic science questions that tests the knowledge, interpretation, and application of clinical skills and understanding of biological, social, and cultural perspectives of mental illness. The success of the clerkship is the outcome of dedicated learners and incessant educational contributions from faculty and staff.

—Mousa Botros, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Director of Medical Student Education

First-year Resident Dr. Anthony DeLuca Presents Abstract at American Public Health Association’s 2022 Annual Meeting and Expo

CNSA/1FL ADRC Team Raises Thousands for 2022 Walk to End Alzheimer’s

The members of our Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging participated in this year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s, the world’s largest fundraiser for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research. The walk aims to raise awareness and funds to help find a cure for the debilitating disease that currently affects six million Americans. The 2022 Walk took place at the Riccardo Silva Stadium in Miami. There were 1600 participants, 233 teams, and more than $700,000 was raised, several thousand by the 1FL ADRC Team!

AAP’s Annual Meeting Draws Largest Group of Students from UM

TSCS Team Drives Important Conversations at SLEEP Conference

Researchers from our Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Studies ( TSCS) led important conversations concerning sleep, long-term health, racial and ethnic disparities, and sleep technology at SLEEP 2022, the 36th annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies, held in Charlotte, N.C.

Nine TSCS researchers presented a total of 13 posters, abstracts, and discussion sessions, encompassing longitudinal analyses of sleep and health data as well as emergent health issues—such as COVID-19—that impact sleep.

The SLEEP conference is the world’s largest meeting dedicated to clinical sleep medicine, sleep health, and sleep and circadian research.

2022 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Annual Meeting

Barbara Coffey, M D., M.S., was recently selected as Deputy Program Chair at this year’s 2022 American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) Annual Meeting. She will assume the role of Program Chair at the end of the October 2023 meeting in New York City. Additionally, she gave two presentations this year:

l Clinical Perspectives: Moving Beyond Red Light, Green Light: 2022 Update on Pharmacogenetics and Its Emerging Role in Antidepressant Treatment, which highlighted the growing work on pediatric pharmacogenetics; and

l COVID-19 and Tic Disorders: A Story in Motion, which addressed the specific and unique impact of the pandemic on youth and young adults with persistent tic disorders and Tourette’s disorder

At this year’s Association for Academic Psychiatry Annual Meeting in Denver, Colorado, we had the largest number of medical students from the University of Miami participating!

UM students presented three medical education posters pertaining to curriculum improvement projects.

AAP’s Annual Meeting is designed for psychiatrists who are interested in learning about academic development, teaching psychiatry, and research on psychiatry education.

Zili Khan, MSW, LCSW, Coordinator of our Adult Suicide Prevention Program, Speaks with Friend of the Department and President of NAMI Miami, Susan Racher

Suicide remains a leading cause of death in the U.S., with 1.2 million attempted suicides each year and an estimated 46,000 people losing their lives to suicide annually. One way the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is combating this mental health epidemic is through our Adult S uicide Prevention Program. Using a combination of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and other evidence-based techniques, our experts including Zili Khan, MSW, LCSW, and Ingrid Barrera, Psy.D., Director of the program, develop and administer a personalized treatment plan for each individual participating in the program. Zili joined Susan on Miami’s Community News on behalf of NAMI’s S uicide Prevention Initiative. The goal of the conversation was to increase awareness about suicide, suicide prevention, clinical interventions, and resources available to those at risk. Zili explained the application of CBT/DBT strategies in the program, and their proven effectiveness in treating individuals who are at high risk for suicide and nonsuicidal self-injurious behaviors. Watch the full conversation at bit.ly/3VWLyJD. For more information on the program, contact Zili Khan, MSW, LCSW, at zhk3@med.miami.edu.

Left to right: Ainhoa Norindr, Ann Michelle Oler, Alexandra Nicole Coppa, Natalie Lyn Constantine, Mousa Botros

Selected Publications

Eleonore Beurel, Ph.D.

Microbiome

Th17 cells sense microbiome to promote depressive-like behaviors

Yasin Bez M.D., Barbara Coffey, M.D., M.S. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology Management of COVID-19 Infection-Associated Flare in an Adolescent with Pediatric Acute Neuropsychiatric Syndrome and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Judite Blanc, Ph.D. American Psychologist Journal La Lutte Continue: Louis Mars and the Genesis of Ethnopsychiatry American Psychologist

Mousa Botros, M.D.

Columbus Journal of Case Reports Subtle and Confounding Features of Catatonia in a Geriatric Patient with Bipolar Disorder

Zelde Espinel, M.D. Lancet Oncology Climate-driven Atlantic hurricanes create complex challenges for cancer care Zelde Espinel, M.D., Elizabeth Crocco M.D. Geriatric Psychiatry (What Do I Do Now Psychiatry) Chapter 3: Mental status in the moment

Luminita Luca, M.D., Elizabeth Crocco, M.D. Geriatric Psychiatry (What Do I Do Now Psychiatry) Chapter 28: It’s just a nightcap

Vanessa Padilla, M.D. Food Addiction. In: Mohamed, W., Kobeissy, F. (eds) Nutrition and Psychiatric Disorders. Nutritional Neurosciences.

Maria Rueda-Lara, M.D., Elizabeth Crocco, M.D. Geriatric Psychiatry (What Do I Do Now Psychiatry) Chapter 13: I’m always afraid

Renato Velit, M.D. Clinical Drug Investigation A Systematic Review of Neurocognitive E ffects of Subanesthetic Doses of Intravenous Ketamine in Major Depressive Disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and Healthy Population

Zane Zeier, Ph.D. Nature Communications CRISP R /Cas9-Mediated Excision of ALS/FTD-Causing Hexanucleotide Repeat Expansion in C9ORF72 rescues major disease mechanisms in vivo and in vitro

Kate Aguilar, Research Assistant

Yarlenis Barreto, Clinical Research Coordinator

Yasin Bez, M.D., Associate Professor

Brooke Bosworth, Research Associate 1

Mary Carrasco, Research Associate 1

Rebecca Correa, Research Associate 1

Kirsten Crenshaw, Post-Doctoral Associate

Malik Ellington, Research Associate 2

Cayla Fichtel-Epstein, Research Associate 1

Rachel Fiegenbaum, Clinical Research Coordinator 1

Fayth Frederic, Research Assistant

Mary Gorora, Clinical Research Coordinator

Maria Hadjikyriakou, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical

Leo Landron, Research Associate 1

Loreta Lopez, Research Associate 1 Alejandro Martinez, Research Associate 1

Emory Neer, Research Support Specialist

Nadine Nicholson, Project Manager, Research Support

Juliana Ortiz, Research Associate 1

Sofia Ramirez, Research Associate 1 Alexander Rivera, Research Associate 1

Kayla Taylor, Supervisor, Research Laboratory

Rebecca Wallack, Executive Director, Clinical Operations

Brittany Wright, M.D., Assistant Professor of Clinical

Eleonore Beurel, Ph.D. Yasin Bez M.D. Barbara Coffey, M.D., M.S. Elizabeth Crocco M.D. Judite Blanc, Ph.D. Mousa Botros, M.D.

Zane Zeier, Ph.D.

Renato Velit, M.D.

Maria Rueda-Lara, M.D.

Vanessa Padilla, M.D.

Luminita Luca, M.D.,

Zelde Espinel, M.D.

Clinical Support Team. From left: Patty Galvis, Rebecca Wallack, Gladys Robles, Elizabeth Cosme, Nichole Puentes, Abigail Martinez

Daniella Martinez, Dr. Barbara Coffey, Carmen Alsina

What to Do & Where to Go

For a Mental Health Emergency, CALL 911 if you believe someone is in danger of hurting themselves or others.

Jackson Behavioral Health Hospital Triage 305.355.7332

Silver Alert If your loved one has gone missing, please CALL 911 immediately.

Silver Alert is a statewide initiative to involve the public in locating a cognitively impaired person who has gotten lost driving or while on foot. For more information visit florida silveralert.com.

Office Numbers

Main Psychiatry Appointment Scheduling 305.243.0214

Chairman’s Office 305.243.6400

University of Miami Hospital (West Building) We offer telehealth appointments for psychiatric and psychological services, please call 305.243.0214

Child & Adolescent 305.355.7148

Soffer Clinical Research Center 305.243.2301

Courtelis Center 305.243.4129

Deerfield Beach 954.571.0117

Center for Cognitive Neuroscience and Aging (CNSA) 305.355.9080

Brain Fitness Pavilion 305.355.9080 *English, Option 3

Memory Disorders Clinic 305.355.9065

Common Purpose

Transforming lives through teaching, research and service.

The University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences is committed to: Conducting research that deepens our understanding of the development, pathophysiology, and prevention of psychiatric illness and the nature of human behavior, and apply this knowledge to the development and delivery of more effective, evidence ‐based treatments.

Offering comprehensive treatment and consultation to our patients, their families, and the community.

Providing outstanding mental health education and multidisciplinary training to the next generation of healthcare providers and investigators.

DIRECCT

Core values

l Diversity l Integrity l Responsibility l Excellence l Compassion l Creativity l Teamwork

The publication of the University of Miami Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Executive Editor

Samantha Richter

Soffer Clinical Research Center 1120 NW 14th Street, Miami, FL 33136