Innovative Treatments Hold Promise for Mental Health

“We still know so little about how the brain works, particularly in terms of higher brain functions such as emotions and thinking. This also translates into knowing so little about the causes of psychiatric illnesses and how psychiatric treatments work. We are investigating how medications work, using novel brain imaging techniques and genetic data, and combining the two. We are also investigating how novel drugs such as ketamine lead to the rapid reversal of depression and suicidal thoughts and how that compares to traditional treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy.”

Amit Anand, MD
Director of Psychiatry Translational Clinical Trials
Mass General Brigham

“Even our gold-standard treatments for anxiety are not a one-size fits all. We are looking at responses to our treatments on an individual level and hope to be able to better personalize treatments in the future.”

Amanda Baker, PhD
Director, Center for Anxiety and Traumatic Stress Disorders
Massachusetts General Hospital

“We are working on understanding brain/behavior mechanisms of irritability in children. Irritability is the No. 1 reason kids go to the emergency room for mental health and No. 1 reason they are seen in outpatient mental health settings. Irritability is involved in 10 DSM diagnoses from Autism to ADHD to Bipolar Disorder. Irritability also is associated with significant impairment in adulthood, including suicide. We need better, more effective ways to diagnose and to treat, and our research seeks to inform that.”

Daniel Dickstein, MD
Chief & Director of Research, Nancy and Richard Simches Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Hall-Mercer Endowed Chair in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Director of The PediMIND Program
McLean Hospital

“Our work has shown that a subgroup of women is at risk for depressed mood during the menopause transition. Key risk factors include a history of depression, having nighttime hot flashes, poor sleep quality. Examples include sleep interruption during the middle of the night, and a period of time when hormone patterns include extreme fluctuations in estrogen and when progesterone is not produced. We are currently studying potential pathways in the brain through which metabolites of progesterone that are known to treat postpartum depression may have benefit in menopause-related depression. We are also studying how stress exposures affect the brain of midlife women to have a detrimental effect on their health after menopause.”

Hadine Joffe, MD, MSc
Interim Chair, Department of Psychiatry
Executive Director, Mary Horrigan Connors Center for Women’s Health and Gender Biology
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“Mind-body practices such as yoga and meditation can change the structure of the brain. In particular, these practices alter the amygdala and hippocampus in beneficial ways. These are two of the main brain regions that are dysregulated in many mental illnesses. Mindfulness meditation appears to alter brain function in a way that helps promote emotional resilience. We see these changes even in people who do not currently have a psychiatric condition, and these changes may help people better deal with emotional challenges.”

Sara Lazar, PhD
Investigator of Psychiatry
Massachusetts General Hospital

“Organizations, like people, are in need of and deserve healing. My research in trauma-informed systems change demonstrates that when organizations are equipped with trauma-informed knowledge, tools and skills, they can effectively create the conditions for healing. We are investigating how our trauma-informed "Training for Change" curriculum translates across cultures and continents. The objective is to offer our validated Survey tor Trauma Informed Systems Change (STICS) as a tool that can be used globally to assess and measure trauma-informed systems change.”

Alisha Moreland-Capuia, MD
Director of Trauma-Informed Treatment, Consultation, and Outreach, Division of Depression and Anxiety Disorders
McLean Hospital

“Our team has been researching heated yoga for depression, and we have found that one or two heated yoga classes per week at community yoga studios can reduce depressive symptoms compared to a waitlist control. We are currently running a study to compare heated to non-heated yoga for depression to isolate the contribution of the heat. We also just finished a study of heat alone (or whole body hyperthermia) for depression.”

Maren Nyer, PhD
Director of Yoga Studies at the Depression Clinical and Research Program
Massachusetts General Hospital

"Many different psychiatric disorders map to a common brain circuit. However, since each patient has a unique diagnosis and presenting symptoms, we are testing whether we can tailor non-invasive brain stimulation treatments according to each patient’s unique symptom profile, allowing for a more individualized approach to psychiatric patient care.”

Joseph Taylor, MD, PhD
Clinical Director of TMS, Center for Brain Circuit Therapeutics, Department of Psychiatry
Brigham and Women’s Hospital

“We have found that brief interventions, including behavioral activation (BA) and smartphone-delivered mindfulness exercises, can help improve depressive symptoms for many adolescents. BA focuses on helping depressed teens gradually and systematically re-engage with activities (including social activities and hobbies) that improve mood. Mindfulness exercises help individuals cultivate present-moment attention, including greater awareness of one’s emotional state and ongoing thought stream (including internal self-talk that drives negative emotions that we may not be typically aware of). 

We are also investigating whether built-in smartphone sensors — such as those that measure activity levels, percent of time spent in the home, and phone use patterns — can predict when teens are struggling with negative emotions. Additionally, we are testing whether brief interventions delivered to their smartphones can improve mood."

Christian Webb, PhD
Director of the Treatment and Etiology of Depression in Youth (TEDY) Laboratory
McLean Hospital