UCSF Psychiatry News

New research led by UC San Francisco scientists has revealed that mutations in a gene linked with brain development may dispose people to multiple forms of psychiatric disease by changing the way brain cells communicate.

Professor of Psychiatry Elissa Epel, PhD, is among the 79 new members elected to the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine.

Anna Molofsky, MD, PhD, and Dhakshin Ramanathan, MD, PhD, have been awarded 2016 NARSAD Young Investigator Grants in recognition of their work as promising young scientists conducting innovative, cutting-edge neurobiological research.

Years of research have shown that trauma and adverse events in childhood can put a person at an elevated risk for a wide range of physical and mental health problems across their life span. But the scope and significance of that impact ­– and how to reverse it – is just beginning to come into focus.

Major childhood psychological and social stressors, such as trouble with the police and parental substance abuse, increase the odds of shorter telomere length in adulthood, according to a study led by researchers at UC San Francisco.

The Sugar, Stress, Environment, and Weight (SSEW) Center, a collaborative group of researchers from UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis, will host its eighth annual symposium on Thursday, October 27, 2016 at the UCSF Laurel Heights Conference Center in San Francisco.

In response to an executive order from President Obama to initiate major research efforts to better understand and treat PTSD and related disorders, the National Institutes of Health has agreed to fund the most comprehensive longitudinal study of trauma survivors ever performed.

Three new faculty members will officially begin their academic appointments with the Department of Psychiatry on Saturday, October 1, with a fourth joining them on Monday, October 3.

Persistent poverty in young adulthood and midlife may elevate one’s risk for lower cognitive function by age 50, according to the results of a study that tracked income levels of close to 3,400 adults over a 25-year duration.

Longtime Bay Area psychotherapist and educator Ellen Nan Resnick, LCSW, of Emerald Hills, Calif., passed away on September 26, 2016. She was 58 years old.