Policies & Procedures
Psychology Internship Announces 2008-09 Match Results
The psychology faculty are very pleased to announce the match results for the 2008-09 internship program. They are confident that this will be another outstanding group that will continue to make strong contributions to the department’s clinical and research programs. The new interns’ start date will be July 1, 2008. On the Adult track: Andrew Bonner-Jackson (Washington University; Major Advisor Deanna Barch; Dissertation: Associative memory processes in schizophrenia); Samantha Glass (University of Wisconsin, Madison; Major Advisor Joe Newman; Dissertation: Emotion processing in the criminal psychopath: The influence of attention on emotion-facilitated memory); Vina Goghari (University of Minnesota; Major Advisor Angus MacDonald; Dissertation: Structural and functional MRI markers of the genetic liability to schizophrenia); and Margaret Wardle (UIC; Major Advisor Jon Kassel; Dissertation: Alcohol, emotions, and judgment).
On the Child track: Holly Bernard (University of Denver; Major Advisor Bruce Pennington; Dissertation: Genetic and environmental contributions to ADHD); Patrick Fowler (Wayne State University; Major Advisor Paul Toro; Dissertation: Factors associated with well-being and resilience for youth in foster care); Rachel Jacobs (Northwestern University; Major Advisor Mark Reinecke; Dissertation: Perfectionism and acute treatment outcome in adolescent depression); and Lauren McGrath (University of Denver; Major Advisor Bruce Pennington; Dissertation: Gene x environment interactions in developmental dyslexia).
S Pandey and Colleagues Identify Brain Protein Linked to Anxiety, Alcoholism
In the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience, Subhash Pandey, Ph.D., reports that it may one day be possible to control alcohol addiction by manipulating molecular events in the brain that underlie anxiety associated with alcohol withdrawal. Previous research has shown that people with inherently high levels of anxiety are at an increased risk of becoming alcoholics. In addition, withdrawal of alcohol in chronic users is often accompanied by extreme anxiety. Dr. Pandey and his colleagues found that a protein within neurons in the amygdala controls the development of alcohol withdrawal symptoms and drinking behaviors in laboratory animals by changing the shape of the neurons. This change affects communication between neurons, leading to behavior changes.
The researchers found that short-term alcohol exposure increased the number of dendritic spines in certain regions of the amygdala, producing anti-anxiety effects. Alcohol-dependent animals eventually developed a tolerance to the anxiety-lowering effects of alcohol. The researchers traced the anti-anxiety effect to the production of a particular protein, Arc, in response to a nerve growth factor called BDNF that is stimulated by alcohol exposure. BDNF is vital in the functioning and maintenance of neurons.
When alcohol was withheld from animals that had been chronically exposed, they developed high anxiety. Levels of BDNF and Arc -- and the number of dendritic spines -- were decreased in the amygdala. But the researchers eliminated anxiety in the alcohol-dependent animals by restoring BDNF and Arc to normal levels. The researchers blocked Arc production in normal rats by injecting a complementary sequence to Arc gene DNA into the central amygdala. They found that when levels of Arc in the central amygdala were lowered, the spines decreased and anxiety and alcohol consumption increased. When levels of Arc were returned to normal three days post-injection, anxiety and alcohol consumption also returned to normal.
“This is the first direct evidence of the molecular processes occurring in the neurons that is responsible for the co-morbidity of anxiety and alcoholism, which we believe plays a major role in the addictive nature of alcohol,” said Dr. Pandey. BDNF-Arc signaling and associated dendritic spines in the amygdala may serve as a target for new drug development, he added.
Antonio Noronha, Ph.D., director of neuroscience and behavior research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, said the research provides “an insight into the link between alcohol and anxiety and could be used to identify new targets for developing medications that alleviate withdrawal-induced anxiety and potentially modify a motivation for drinking,” Links to some of the media coverage of the findings are available below:
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/99503.php
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/03/080304173356.htm
http://www.netindia123.com/showdetails.asp?id=901198&cat=India&head=Brain+ protein+linked+to+anxiety+and+alcoholism+identified
http://www.anxietyinsights.info/brain_protein_links_anxiety_and_alcoholism.htm
http://in.news.yahoo.com/indiaabroad/20080305/r_t_ians_sc/tsc-indian-american- identifies-link-betw-1bdf89b.html
http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Health/2008/03/06/brain_chemistry_key_to_anxiety_ and_alcohol/6393/
http://www.bio-medicine.org/medicine-news/A-Protein-In-Brain-Regulates-Anxiety-And- The-Consumption-Of-Alcohol-13211-1/
http://www.topnews.in/health/brain-protein-linked-anxiety-and-alcoholism-identified-21339
PGY2 Child Psychiatry Fellows Win 2007-08 ICCAP Jay G. Hirsh Memorial Award
The second-year Child Psychiatry fellows won the 2007-08 Jay G. Hirsch Memorial Award, presented by the Illinois Council of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. There will be a presentation of the work at the March 19 ICCAP meeting at the Quadrangle Club in Chicago as well as the presentation of the award. The paper was titled "Trends in Assignment of Bipolar Diagnosis in a Sample of State Wards Receiving Psychiatric Services," and the authors were: Jennifer Le, MD; Toya Clay, MD; Cecilia Dahn, MD and Mathias Lillig, MD. David Henry, Ph.D., supervised and mentored the group. Michael Naylor, M.D., collaborated on the project and provided data.
Media Quote Rasenick on Brain Protein Site as Measure of Antidepressant Effectiveness
Mark Rasenick, Ph.D., is quoted in several stories on his research study showing that changes in the location of a single protein in the brain could be used to tell whether a person with depression is responding to an antidepressant within days of taking the drug. Dr. Rasenick was interviewed by NBC and Canadian Television and appears in stories by Reuters, WebMD, and Healthday. A link to the Reuters story is below: http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSN1162359920080311
Mustanski publishes two articles in AIDS and Behavior
IJR faculty Brian Mustanski, Ph.D., published two peer-reviewed articles in the current issue of the journal AIDS and Behavior. The first article reports data from his online daily diary study and identifies a developmental change in the relationship between alcohol consumption and HIV risk behaviors. The second article, co-written with Dr. Jeffrey Parsons, director of the NY Center for HIV Education, Studies, and Training (CHEST), examines the relationship between negative consequences of alcohol use, adherence self-efficacy, medication adherence, and biological markers of HIV health among a sample of alcohol abusing HIV positive men and women. Citation information:
Mustanski, B. (2008). Moderating Effects of Age on the Alcohol and Sexual Risk Taking Association: An Online Daily Diary Study of Men Who have Sex with Men. AIDS Behav, 12(1), 118-126.
Parsons, J. T., Rosof, E., & Mustanski, B. (2008). Medication Adherence Mediates the Relationship between Adherence Self-efficacy and Biological Assessments of HIV Health among those with Alcohol Use Disorders. AIDS Behav, 12(1), 95-103.
Policies & Procedures
Over the next few months we will be providing and implementing Department Electronic, Network, Computing Policies and Procedures. All Department Policies and Procedures will be reviewed and endorsed by the Information Technology Steering Committee (ITSC) prior to presenting to the Department.
Because of our relationship to UIC and College of Medicine there are some Policies we automatically inherit. Two such policies:
- Information Security Policy - The University of Illinois
- University Guidelines on the Sale, Donation, or Transfer of Computer Hard Drives and Other Magnetic Media
These policies can be found on our web site using the following link: https://intranet.psych.uic.edu/is/ you will be required to “log-in” to access these policies.
We will make both of these policies (along with others forth coming) a part of new employee orientation, but to those of us already in the system we are asking that each of you please take the time to read these policies.
If you have any questions concerning any policy or procedure please contact Lloyd Keith, thank you.
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