Department of Psychiatry, Georgetown University Medical School
Matthew Biel, MD, MSc
Co-Investigator of a 3-year HRSA Maternal and Child Health Bureau funded grant entitled Improving Early Autism Diagnosis in Latino Families. Dr. Bruno Anthony from Pediatrics is PI. Goals are to address disparities in age at diagnosis and access to appropriate services for Latino children with Autism Spectrum Diagnoses in the District of Columbia. The project will be based at Unity Health Care’s Upper Cardozo Health Center, and will combine training for pediatric primary care providers; outreach to the Latino community; and enhanced access to Early Intervention and public school-based services. This grant runs through 8/13.
Dr. Dionne Coker-Appiah
PI of a NIMHD Disparities Research and Education Advancing Mission (DREAM) Career Transition Award (K22) entitled Project LOVE: Preventing Adolescent Dating Violence among Rural African Americans. The focus of the K22 is to gain additional training and research experience necessary to become an independent prevention researcher who can design, conduct and evaluate community-based intervention trials to prevent ADV among rural African Americans. This grant runs through 01/16.
Pricilla Dass-Brailsford, EdD
PI of a Department of Psychiatry pilot grant entitled Maternal Disclosure of HIV Serostatus to Children. The primary goal of the project is to qualitatively explore mothers’ decision-making with regard to maternal disclosure of HIV status, including whether and when they disclose, the decision process itself, and what guidance or support they may have or not have in this process. The pilot data will support a grant application to develop an intervention to help with decision-making.
Kimberly Davis, PhD
Co-I (Dr. Arnie Potasky is PI) of an NIH /NIAMS grant entitled Validation of PROMIS in Diverse Populations. The primary goal of this project is to evaluate research methods being developed by the NIH-funded Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) to measure depression, fatigue, physical function and social function, focusing on comparing how well PROMIS measures perform across 4 major race/ethnic and 2 age groups in a large group of cancer patients. This grant runs through 9/13.
Co-I (Dr. Kate Taylor is PI) of an American Cancer Society-funded grant entitled Quality of Life Among Long Term Prostate cancer Survivors in the PLCO Cancer Screening Trial. The major goal of this grant is to delineate the impact of regular screening among long-term survivors, as well as separate the consequences of the PCa disease and treatment vs. the consequences of aging. This retrospective cohort study is the first to examine the long-term health-related quality of life (HRQL) sequelae of prostate cancer in the PLCO trial.
Dr. Stephen Deutsch
PI of a R34 from NIMH entitled Interventions to Test the Alpha 7 Nicotinic Receptor Model in Schizophrenia. The aim of this study is to conduct a “proof of concept” clinical trial combining galantamine and CDP-choline. The hypothesis is that galantamine will prevent receptor desensitization, allowing choline to serve as a selective agonist, rather than becoming a functional antagonist secondary to receptor desensitization. The project anticipates co-administration of these agents will reduce symptoms and improve memory and attention. Fifty patients with DSM-IV schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder will be randomly assigned to either combination treatment or placebos for both in a 16-week trial. Recruitment will be at the VAMC, Washington, DC. Co-Investigators include Drs. Richard Rosse, Nina Schooler, and Barbara Schwartz. The study is funded through 03/12.
PI of Administrative supplement under the parent R34 grant entitled, Interventions to Test the Alpha 7 Nicotinic Receptor Model in Schizophrenia. The supplement is intended to provided support for a pre-or post- doctoral fellow and to enhance the infrastructure of the eye tracking system to evaluate a neurophysiological genetic liability marker of schizophrenia. Co investigators include Drs. Richard Rosse, Nina Schooler, and Barbara Schwartz. This study is funded through 3/12.
Mary Ann Dutton, PhD
PI of an NIMH R34 grant (R34 MH077066) entitled A First Line Community-Based Mindfulness Trauma Intervention. The overall goal is to address the mental health care disparity for low-income, minority women exposed to intimate partner violence. This project will develop and test an accessible, tailored, and culturally appropriate mindfulness-based intervention suitable for delivery in non-mental health community settings. The study is funded through 12/11.
Community Engagement Core Co-Director on a 5-year Georgetown-Howard Universities Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CTSA). Joint PIs Georgetown’s Joseph Verbalis, Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism, and Thomas Mellman, Professor of psychiatry and Vice-Chair of Clinical Research at Howard will direct the Center, which also includes MedStar Health/ MedStar Health Research Institute, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and the Washington, DC Veteran's Affairs Medical Center.
Dr. Ayman Fanous
PI of a NARSAD Independent Investigator award entitled Molecular Genetics of Schizophrenia in Egypt. The goal of this project is to collect information (750 cases and 750 controls) on patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder, depressed type in Cairo, Egypt, in collaboration with the Ain Shams University Hospitals in Cairo, where the controls will be collected from their blood bank. In this pilot study, markers from a small number of previously established susceptibility genes will be tested. The grant is funded through 6/12.
PI of a VA Merit Review Program award entitled Convergent Genetic and Genomic Analyses of Schizophrenia. The goal of this project is to uncover genetic risk factors for schizophrenia risk in a geographically isolated Portuguese island population using linkage, association, and gene expression analysis. The grant is funded through 3/14.
Site PI of a VA Cooperative Studies Program award entitled Genetics of Disability in Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder. The goal of this project is to collect a large sample of schizophrenic and bipolar patients in the VA system nationwide for large-scale genetic studies focusing on disease risk as well as genetic influences on disability and cognitive dysfunction. The grant is funded through approximately 3/14.
Site PI of a VA Genomic Medicine Program award entitled Million Veteran Program. The goal of this project is to collect a cohort of approximately one million veterans nationwide for future genetic studies of multiple diseases affecting US veterans, as well as longitudinal follow-up. The grant is funded through approximately 3/15.
Bonnie L. Green, PhD
PI of an NIMH-funded R34 entitled Improving Communication between Primary Care Providers and Their Trauma Patients. The aims of the project are to adapt and pilot test a curriculum for primary care providers (PCPs) to help them work more productively with trauma survivors. We plan to: (1) adapt an existing manual and training curriculum on working therapeutically with trauma survivors to be appropriate for PCPs, (2) evaluate initial acceptability of the curriculum and material to providers and patients; and (3) conduct a controlled study of the adapted training, all with a focus on providers serving low-income populations. Providing PCPs with multiple strategies to address the physical and mental health complaints of their patients will improve primary care for vulnerable populations. This grant runs through 6/12.
PI of an NIMH-funded infrastructure grant (R24) entitled Improving Mental Health Services For Low-Income Latinos In Primary Care. It seeks to strengthen an existing partnership between the Center for Trauma and the Community (CTC) and the Primary Care Coalition (PCC) of Montgomery County, to support the timely development and evaluation of culturally competent, trauma-sensitive, and innovative interventions to improve patient mental health. It will support integration of clinical research into the clinical care process at the community clinic level. It will support the upgrade of the mental health section of PCC’s electronic medical record (EMR) and conduct a naturalistic evaluation of the Montgomery Cares Behavioral Health Program (MCBHP), comparing clinics with and without the program. Dr. Maria Rosa Watson of the PCC is Co-PI and Dr. Kaltman is a Co-Investigator. This grant runs through 2/13.
Site-PI (PI is Dr. Lisa Meredith of RAND Corp.) of an R01 from NIMH entitled Improving PTSD Management in Primary Care. The project is designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the PTSD Care Management program (PCM); assess the success of the PCM program implementation; and examine the cost-effectiveness of the PCM program compared to a control condition in terms of total costs, cost per adjusted-life year, and PTSD burden. The research is being conducted in collaboration with the Clinical Directors Network, Inc. (CDN) in the New York area, a community-oriented practice-based research network that provides primary and preventive health care services for poor, minority, and underserved populations. Dr. Stacey Kaltman is a Co-investigator. This grant runs through 3/13.
Site PI of a grant funded by the NIJ/DOJ (PI is Dr. Shannon Lynch, Idaho State University) entitled Women’s Pathways to Jail: The Roles and Intersections of Serious Mental Illness and Trauma. The goal of this study is to address critical gaps in the understanding of women’s pathways to jail, including, a) current and lifetime prevalence of serious mental illness, including PTSD (across a sample of female offenders in urban and rural jails in four regions of the U.S.; b) level of impairment associated with serious mental illness in female offenders; c) the extent to which women with serious mental illness in jails meet criteria for more than one diagnosis, focusing on the comorbidity of serious mental illness and substance use disorders and/or PTSD; d) the extent to which seriously mentally ill females in jail have access to quality treatment prior to incarceration; and e) whether pathways to jail differ for women with serious mental illness versus women without such illness. Dr. Priscilla Dass-Brailsford is a Co-Investigator. Grant runs through 3/12.
Stacey Kaltman, PhD
PI of a K23 from NIMH entitled Trauma and Mental Health of Latina Immigrants. The overall goal of the project is to gain an understanding of trauma and loss-related mental health needs of Latina immigrants from Central America and begin to develop culturally and linguistically competent services that are acceptable, effective, and accessible. Dr. Kaltman’s primary mentor is Dr. Green. This grant runs through 06/12.
Janice Krupnick, PhD
PI of a DoD funded grant entitled Online Writing Intervention for Veterans: A Pilot Study. The goals of the project are 1) to adapt an online writing intervention focused on trauma for veterans who have PTSD subsequent to service in OIF or OEF; 2) to determine the acceptability, feasibility, and safety of the intervention; 3) to obtain preliminary evidence of the safety of the intervention. Drs. Green and Dutton are Co-Investigators. This grant runs through 10/12.
