My first three months as your interim department chair has been an extraordinary experience - I’ve deepened my understanding about our rich and successful clinical, education and research portfolios, as well as our campus, school and department governance and administrative operations; developed new relations with school, site and campus leadership; and met current and new department supporters. Many thanks to all who have met and advised me. I’ve asked quite a few of you to take on new roles and activities, and I greatly appreciate all who stepped up to help the department and school.

At year’s end I would like to acknowledge our volunteer faculty, whose teaching roles range from co-leading the women’s support group at the UCSF Medical Student Homeless Clinic and facilitating medical student small groups in our doctoring and neurosciences courses, to serving as clinical advisors and consultants to our many psychiatry and psychology graduate trainees, particularly in developing psychotherapy skills. Our volunteer faculty receive invitations to all eight of our departmental Grand Rounds series; which are also posted on our website http://psych.ucsf.edu/events.aspx . Our current Affiliate Faculty and Volunteer Clinical Faculty are now listed publicly on our website http://psych.ucsf.edu/ucsf-default.aspx?id=6923 .

Looking ahead to 2012, please mark your calendars for two events:

• Department Education Retreat for paid and volunteer faculty: Friday, May 18, 2012, morning through mid-afternoon. The focus this year moves onwards from last year’s Professionalism theme to another core competency, Medical Knowledge.
• Department Commencement: Friday morning, June 22, 2012.

And while not yet scheduled, be on the look-out for announcements of public-round meetings with and presentations by finalist candidates for our next department chair.

It was a pleasure to join many of you at the annual department holiday party, which this year was a Tuesday breakfast, to which many staff, trainees, faculty and friends came from our many sites and the community. It was so great to put faces to names. The timing of the event allowed us to greet colleagues at the end of their night shift, those on their way via shuttles to different sites, and the surprisingly many who like me are early birds.

Travel safely if you’re off to visit family, friends or a change in scenery. Many thanks to those who are staying, covering our administrative and building operations, patient and clinical activities, and research efforts (including caring for all everything from animals, biosamples, cell cultures to yellow lasers and zeptoseconds). Good Holidays and see you in 2012.

• Deborah Barnes, PhD: Identification of key dementia risk factors in older veterans, $364,972, sponsor DOD, start date 10/1/11
  
• Daniel Mathalon, PhD, MD: Tracking medication-related changes in clinical state with resting state fMRI, $138,936, sponsor Univ. of Mexico, start date 9/1/11
  
• Thomas Neylan, MD: Mental health core–continuation, $600,000, sponsor DOD, start date 9/30/11

Alliance Health Project. To mark the expansion of its mission, the AIDS Health Project revealed its new agency name at a November 15 event. The pioneering HIV and mental health agency has broadened its focus to, as the new mission announces, “support the mental health and wellness of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and HIV-affected communities in constructing healthy and meaningful lives.” The new name is the UCSF Alliance Health Project: Services for the HIV and LGBTQ Communities. The mission includes the additional tagline: “Know Yourself, Know Your Status, Know Your Community,” which applies to both LGBTQ and HIV-related mental health and wellness, since the quest for self-knowledge and community is part of both the LGBTQ coming out process and the process of coming to terms with living with HIV. The event also honored the donors who have made AHP one of the oldest and most respected HIV service agencies in the country and included the unveiling of new “donor plaques” that featured the most generous and steadfast donors of the past 27 years. San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener presented a Proclamation from State Senator Mark Leno, expressing his appreciation for AHP's work. Other speakers included Jim Dilley, Chief of Psychiatry at SFGH and AHP founder; AHP Director, Lori Thoemmes; Jo Robinson from the San Francisco Department of Public Health; and Phil DeCarlo, Chair of AHP's Community Advisory Board. Warm feelings and enthusiastic support ensured that a good time was had by all, and AHP looks forward to facing the future with many friends and supporters as AHP embraces its new mission.

• Pierre-Marie Martin, PhD (Cheyette Lab): Massive parallel sequencing of 15 genes of the Wnt signaling pathway in major psychiatric disorders ($10,000)
• Howard Newville, PhD (NIDA postdoc/Sorensen mentor): Determinants of HAART adherence in HIV+ active substance users ($2,785)
• Anna Ordóñez, MD (NIDA postdoc/Mathews mentor): Resilience and psychotherapy in adolescents: A comparative study of high and low risk populations ($10,000)
• Susan Voglmaier, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor): Variation in neuroligin expression and presynaptic functional development ($10,000)
•  Joshua Woolley, MD, PhD (VA Advanced Neuroscience Research Fellow/Vinogradov mentor): Neural mechanisms of oxytocin's prosocial effects in patients with schizophrenia ($10,000)
• Adina Zeki Al Hazzouri, PhD, MS (Epidemilogy & Biostatistics and Psychiatry postdoc/Yaffe mentor): Arterial stiffening association in depressive symptoms and relationship with race/ethnicity ($9,978)

• This systematic review demonstrated the high co-use of tobacco and marijuana among young people. Ethnicity, health, and school factors were consistently associated with co-use, while the only consistent consequence of co-use was exacerbation of psychiatric symptoms. Few studies examined prevention or cessation interventions for TOB and MJ co-use.

• This study evaluated the relapse precursors of adolescents after substance abuse treatment and found two major categories of precursors, including Aversive-Social situations and Positive-Social situations which were stable in structure over time. Findings highlight the dynamic nature of relapse for youth and have important clinical implications.
  
  

Chi, F. W., Parthasarathy, S., Mertens, J. R., & Weisner, C. M. (2011). Continuing care and long-term substance use outcomes in managed care: Initial evidence for a primary care based model. Psychiatr Serv 62(10):1194–2000.

Satre, D. D., Sterling, S., Mackin, R. S., & Weisner, C. (2011). Patterns of alcohol and drug use among depressed older adults seeking outpatient psychiatric services. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 19(8):695-703.

Von Korff, M., Merrill, J. O., Rutter, C. M., Sullivan, M., Campbell, C. I., & Weisner, C. (2011). Time-scheduled versus pain-contingent opioid dosing in chronic opioid therapy. Pain 152(6):1256-62. PMCID: PMC3098951.

Weisner, C. (2011). Innovative policy strategies need empirical evaluation. Addiction 106(12):2069-70.