NARSAD Awards Researchers On Path to Mental Illness Cure
Six nationally renowned scientists were lauded for their achievements in psychiatric research by the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression (NARSAD) at its recent awards dinner.
The dinner, which took place in November in New York City, raised a total of $800,000 for research in schizophrenia, depression, and other brain disorders. Awards presented to researchers in these areas carried a cash award of $50,000.
Said Constance Lieber, president of NARSAD, “All of our honorees through their vision, determination, and tireless work have advanced the quest for a cure.”
NARSAD is a nonprofit organization that raises and distributes funds for scientific research into the causes, treatment, prevention, and potential cures for mental illness. Former APA President Herbert Pardes, M.D., is president of NARSAD’s scientific council, which consists of 65 multidisciplinary members.
Lieber Prize for Schizophrenia
The Lieber Prize for Schizophrenia Research was presented to Nancy Andreasen, M.D., Ph.D., and William Carpenter Jr., M.D.
Andreasen is chair of psychiatry at the University of Iowa College of Medicine and editor-in-chief of the American Journal of Psychiatry. A renowned researcher in schizophrenia, she was recently awarded the National Medal of Science by President Bill Clinton (Psychiatric News, December 15). She has pioneered the use of neuroimaging studies to explore structural changes in the brain that occur with mental illnesses such as schizophrenia.
Carpenter is a professor of psychiatry and pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. He also has made key contributions to the study of schizophrenia—he has clarified its description and classification and has helped to introduce and test new treatment modalities. He is now leading an effort to study the informed consent process in people with schizophrenia.
Award for Affective Disorders
The Nola Maddox Falcone Prize for Affective Disorders went to Kay Redfield Jamison, Ph.D., A. John Rush Jr., M.D., and Robert Belmaker, M.D.
Jamison, who is a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, is the author of numerous works relating to affective disorders and suicide. She has chronicled her own experiences with bipolar illness in the book An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, and cowrote with Frederick Goodwin, M.D., Manic Depressive Illness, which was called “the most outstanding book in medical sciences” by the American Association of Publishers.
Rush is the Betty Jo Hay Distinguished Chair in Mental Health and Rosewood Corporation Chair in Biomedical Science of the department of psychiatry at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He was one of the leaders of the Texas Algorithm Project, which was designed to assess the merits of various treatments for affective disorders.
Belmaker is a professor and chair of the Division of Psychiatry at Ben Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. He is investigating the mechanisms underlying mood-stabilizing treatments in bipolar disorder, with a focus on lithium. Belmaker was also one of the first scientists to see the potential of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for use in psychiatry.
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
The Ruane Prize for Outstanding Research in Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry was awarded for the first time to Professor Sir Michael L. Rutter, who is a professor of developmental psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College in London. Rutter was a professor of child psychiatry at the Institute of Psychiatry from 1973 to 1998 and established the Medical Research Council Child Psychiatry Research Unit in 1984 and the Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Research Centre in 1994. Rutter’s research has included autism and the effects of early deprivation on Romanian orphans. ▪
