Department: Psychiatry & Behavioral Science

My research is focused on disorders of human feeding including the eating disorders: anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Ongoing or recently completed studies include: A controlled trial of the implementation of interpersonal psychotherapy for eating disorders and depression on college campuses across the U.S. A multisite controlled study of two types of family therapy for the treatment of adolescent anorexia nervosa. Early prevemtion of overweight and obesity.

Teaching & clinical interests include: Supervision, training, and mentoring of postdoctoral fellows and residents; consultation. Brief and long-term therapy: CBT, IPT, mood regulation & psychodynamic approaches.

Current research interests include treatment outcome for major depression, particularly treatment refractory and chronic forms of major depression, as well as mediators and moderators of outcome; the epidemiology of chronic pain and depression; relationships between child maltreatment and adult sequelae, including psychiatric, medical and health care utilization.

My research interests have focused on the neural bases of eating disorders and obesity. I am particularly interested in the way emotion and reward is processed in the brain and how that may contribute to eating behavior and food restriction. I hope to eventually translate biological research findings into treatments.

I am interested in establishing evidenced based interventions for neurobehavioral disorders. I currently work in the Psychosocial, Anxiety, and Neuropsychiatry outpatient clinics and direct a monthly Neurobehavioral Clinic. I am focused on the development of nonpharmacological interventions for neuropsychiatric illnesses. My current work is investigating the application and efficacy of dialectical behavior therapy for conversion disorder.

Positive Airway Pressure devices for central sleep apnea

Examines the interplay between brain development and stress vulnerability via a multi-method approach that includes psychophysiology, neuroimaging, neuroendocrinology and phenomenology. Treatment development that focuses on individual and community-based interventions for stress related conditions in children and adolescents that experience traumatic stress.

Alterations in brain morphology and organization during starvation and anorexia nervosa

Dr. Chang conducts research into various facets of bipolar disorder. He is currently conducting phenomenologic, biologic, pharmacologic, and genetic studies of bipolar disorder in adults and children. These studies include brain imaging (MRI, MRS, fMRI) and medication and therapy trials.

What distinguishes us humans from other animals is our ability to undergo complex behavior. The synapses are the structural connection between neurons that mediates the communication between neurons, which underlies our various cognitive function. My research program aims to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that underlie synapse function during behavior in the developing and mature brain, and how synapse function is altered during mental retardation.

Dr. Cosgrove studies putative roles for life and family stress as well as inflammatory and neurotrophic pathways in the etiology and development of bipolar disorder.

My lab uses molecular, optogenetic, anatomical and behavioral methods to identify and manipulate the neuronal circuits underlying brain arousal, with particular attention to sleep and wakefulness transitions. We are also interested in the changes that occur in neuronal circuits in conditions of hyperarousal such as stress and drug addiction.

Treatment resistant depression. Novel biological interventions in the treatment of mental illness. Anti-glucocorticoid drugs in the treatment of mood disorders. Augmentation strategies in the treatment of depression.

Research in Dr. Deisseroth's laboratory focuses on developing optical, molecular and cellular tools to observe, perturb, and re-engineer brain circuits. His laboratory is based in the James H. Clark Center at Stanford and has developed optogenetic and tissue engineering methods, employing techniques spanning electrophysiology, molecular biology, optics, neural activity imaging, animal behavior, and computational neural network modeling.

Sleep Medicine education and awareness.

Although stress has a bad reputation the fight-or-flight stress response is nature's fundamental survival system. Our laboratory elucidates mechanisms that mediate the newly appreciated immunoenhancing effects of short-term stress versus the well known immunosuppressive effects of long-term stress. We investigate stress effects on leukocyte trafficking, cytokine gene/protein expression, and innate/adaptive immunity, in preclinical & clinical models of skin immunity, vaccines, surgery, & cancer.

The overarching aim of the Etkin lab is to understand the neural basis of emotional disorders and their treatment, with a particular emphasis on psychotherapy, and to leverage this knowledge to develop novel treatment interventions. Our investigation of psychopathology and treatment is organized around affective neuroscience of emotion regulation. We also use concurrent transcranial magnetic stimulation with fMRI to understand and manipulate activity in defined neural circuits in humans.

Autism and Asperger's Disorder. Genetically-based neurodevelopmental disorder, including Velocardiofacial Syndrome, Smith-Magenis Syndrome, Williams Syndrome, and Fragile X Syndrome. Intellectual Disability (mental retardation) and psychiatric disorders. Developmental Language Disorder and Learning Disabilities. Sensory impairment in children, including visual and hearing impairment. Psychiatric aspects of medical illness and disability in children.

My current research focuses on neuropsychology and neuroimaging in eating disorders. I am particularly interested in the role of weight suppression and malnourishment on cognition, the evaluation of neuropsychological deficits in adolescents and cognitive features associated with obesity.

We are using functional brain imaging methods (electrophysiology and magnetic resonance imaging) to study symptoms of schizophrenia such as auditory hallucinations, self-monitoring failures, emotional blunting, and cognitive deficits.

The medical research community has long recognized that “good well-being is good science”. The lab uses an integrated interdisciplinary approach, best described as developmental neuroethology, to explore this interface, while providing tangible deliverables for the well-being of human patients and research animals.

Our laboratory is studying synapse formation, stability and elimination at a variety of levels, e.g. from molecules to behavior. A primary focus of the lab is to understanding the role that individual molecules play in the assembly and function of synaptic junctions. In addition we evaluating a variety of potential treatments for cognitive impairment in Down syndrome in part by assessing the impact specific drugs on cognitive function in mouse models of Down syndrome.

Schizophrenia is one of the major public health problems in American medicine. Treatment is partially efficacious but unsatisfactory. Accordingly, our research focuses on treatment outcome in two areas; finding more effective medications which have less side effects than current medications, and in the effects of combining medication with psychosocial interventions.