This Week
January, 8, 2001

Click Here to View News Archive

January 8, 2001

• MANEV AND COLLEAGUES SHOW ANTIDEPRESSANTS PROMOTE NEURONAL CELL PROLIFERATION
• BELL NAMED DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AND COMMUNITY PSYCHIATRY
• JANUARY GRAND ROUNDS ON TUESDAY, JAN. 9

Manev and colleagues show antidepressants promote neuronal cell proliferation

Antidepressants are often prescribed for people with depression, which effects about 15 percent of all Americans at some time in their lives. But researchers haven't clearly understood why or how antidepressants actually work. UIC scientists Hari Manev, M.D., Ph.D., Tolga Uz, M.D., Ph.D., Neil Smalheiser, M.D., Ph.D., and Radmila Manev, M.D., studied the effects of various antidepressants including Prozac (fluoxetine) and found that they stimulate cell proliferation in the adult brain and in vitro. Their findings are consistent with a Yale study reported in the December Journal of Neuroscience. But UIC researchers went a step further by demonstrating that in vitro antidepressants can increase or decrease cell proliferation, depending on the status of neural cultures. Dr. Manev cautions that it is still too early to conclude whether the neurogenesis stimulated by antidepressants accounts for the therapeutic benefits of the drugs; it may be that increased cell proliferation is somehow related to side effects of these medications. Research by Dr. Manev and his group is published in the current issue of the European Journal of Pharmacology.

Bell named Director of Public and Community Psychiatry

Carl Bell, M.D., recently was named director of Public and Community Psychiatry. Dr. Bell is a veteran in the realm of community mental health locally, regionally and nationally. He is president and CEO of the Community Mental Health Council, is a member of the Greater Chicago Criminal Justice and Mental Health Forum of the Mental Health Services System Planning Council of Greater Chicago, and is renowned for spearheading sensitivity efforts in Chicago's juvenile justice system. In November, Dr. Bell was appointed a member of the Institute of Medicine's Board of Neuroscience and Behavioral Health Study on Pathophysiology and Prevention of Adolescent and Adult Suicide. He has served as a member of many policy-making organizations and agencies, including the recent U.S. Delegation to South Africa at the South African-United States Workshop on HIV prevention in South Africa. Dr. Bell has presented numerous seminars and workshops, is a frequent contributor of book reviews, and his views are often cited by print and broadcast media.

January Grand Rounds on Tuesday, Jan. 9

January Grand Rounds will convene tomorrow, Tues., Jan. 9 at 1 p.m. in the College of Medicine Auditorium, Room 106. The topic is "Molecular mechanisms underlying mood stabilization in manic-depressive illness." The presentation is part of the Janssen Bipolar Disorders Professorship Series. A light lunch will be served.