Check out our news archive below to learn more about what’s happening in Duke Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences!
The Kids Are Not Alright: NC-PAL Expands Access to Pediatric Mental Health Services
Courtney Gardner, MSN, a pediatric nurse practitioner in Marion, North Carolina, has seen a tremendous increase in depression and anxiety among her patients in the past few years. However, there are very few pediatric mental health specialists in rural McDowell County or nearby counties — certainly not enough to meet demand. That’s why she is grateful for the support of NC-PAL, a telephone consultation and continuing education program for primary care providers who treat pediatric or perinatal patients with mental health concerns.
Digital Caregiver Autism Coaching App Gets Funding from Bass Connections
All Babies and Children Thrive (ABC Thrive), an initiative of Bass Connections, has awarded follow-on grants to two interdisciplinary teams addressing barriers to services and supporting well-being for young children. One of these grants went to a team at the Duke Center for Autism & Brain Development, to integrate digital autism caregiver coaching into their screening and outcome monitoring tool, the SenseToKnow app. The app will provide information about best practices for early intervention and allow caregivers to track the child’s developmental progress.
Blue Devil of the Week: Creating an Inclusive Climate for those Facing Trauma
Whether Duke Psychiatry's Angela Tunno, PhD, MS, is working with young patients at Duke or helping community-level systems serve trauma survivors with the Center for Child & Family Health, Dr. Tunno works to help children and families find healing. In recognition of her excellent and impactful work, she was named Blue Devil of the Week by Working@Duke this week.
Developing & Testing an Innovative Pain Management Alternative to Opioids
Chronic pain is one of the most common reasons adults in the U.S. seek medical care. Opiates are often used as a pharmacological intervention, but they present a risk of substance use disorder. In an effort to develop an alternative form of treatment, Duke Psychiatry's Eric Elbogen, PhD, and his team turned to “neurofeedback,” or electroencephalograph (EEG) biofeedback treatment.
The Rich Nonprofits Get Richer: Centering Psychiatric Grant Funding at the Margins
Community psychiatrists serve multiple institutional roles, and at times these roles may include the review of grant proposals from nonprofit organizations. In this column published in "Psychiatric Services," the authors, including Duke Psychiatry's Marvin Swartz, MD, argue that privilege and social capital can easily become concentrated among a small group of centralized model organizations and influence the grant review process. By applying a structural lens to this problem, funding entities can identify approaches that more effectively promote equity throughout the grant life cycle.
Carla Wall Recognized as Outstanding Postdoc
Carla Wall, PhD, a postdoctoral associate and an alumna of the Duke Psychiatry Clinical Psychology Doctoral Internship, was selected as one of two 2022 Outstanding Postdocs at Duke. She was nominated by her faculty mentor, Jill Howard, PhD, as well as other research team members.
Dzirasa Wins Prestigious NIH Pioneer Award to Develop New Way To Fine-Tune Brain Circuits
The $3.5 million award will adapt a cell-linker protein in humans that improves crosstalk between brain regions in hopes of rewiring circuits that go awry in psychiatric disorders. The NIH has recognized Dzirasa as one of just eight scholars for the 2022 Director’s Pioneer Award, which specifically funds promising and often paradigm-shifting projects by exceptional researchers.
Three Ways to Avoid Getting Overcommitted
Several Duke experts, including Jane Gagliardi, MD, MHS, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, share some strategies for balancing ambitions with available time and energy.
Strong Duke Showing at the AMP Annual Meeting
Duke’s Internal Medicine-Psychiatry (Med-Psych) program had a strong showing at the 2022 Association of Medicine and Psychiatry (AMP) Annual Meeting in Atlanta, GA, on September 29 to October 1.
Scientists Create Non-Psychedelic Compound with Same Anti-depressant Effect
Published in Nature, this research in animal models show it’s possible to create a compound that hits the same exact target as psychedelic drugs hit – the 5-HT2A serotonin receptors on the surface of specific neurons – but does not cause the same psychedelic effects when given to mice. Duke Psychiatry's William Wetsel, PhD, was a senior author on the paper.