Translational Epidemiology & Mental Health Equity

Overview

This area is comprised of two divisions: Translational Epidemiology, directed by Myrna Weissman, PhD, and Mental Health Equity, directed by Milton Wainberg, MD. Faculty work closely together and are affiliated with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.

The mission of this research area is to advance the understanding, prevention, and treatment of psychiatric disorders using a broad range of epidemiologic methods. For example, hypotheses are generated from the basic laboratory sciences and translated to testing in clinical or population samples and vice-versa. Population or clinical findings are translated into experimental approaches. Large scale surveys to determine risks, rates, and inform health care policy are carried out.

The area includes about 30 faculty researchers who are grouped into areas of expertise and two core facilities. The research is funded by the federal government, New York State, foundations, and philanthropy. The area is involved in research training of masters, doctoral and medical students, psychiatric residents, and postdoctoral fellows, and includes training grants in global mental health and the epidemiology of substance abuse. Consultation on design, sampling, assessment, recruitment, epidemiologic statistics, data management, clinical trials, handling large data sets, repository handling, and human investigation is offered to investigators.

Goals

• To use big datasets including electronic health records to examine the rates, risks, and course of illness and patterns of care
• To test findings from animal studies on the long-term effects of gestational exposure
• To investigate in animal models the biological basis of epidemiological findings from human populations, in particular the priming effects of selected drugs
• To search for biological mechanisms of disease using electrophysiology, neuroimaging, and genetic approaches in well-designed clinical/population studies
• To examine the role of adversity and stress on the onset and course of psychiatric disorders
• To use population data to monitor emerging public health threats such as opioid misuse, overdose deaths, and suicide for health planning and identifying needs for mental health resources and disparities
• To implement longitudinal studies to identify the risks and consequences of psychiatric disorders and substance abuse
• To narrow the gaps between clinical science and mental health care delivery by characterizing patient flow and care, use of evidence-based practices, and their safety and effectiveness
• To collect large data sets for studies of genetic disorders or biomarkers of family transmission or of treatment responses and to deliver these data to the NIH repositories for wide scientific use
• To conduct a research program on the implementation of science-based approaches to mental health treatment in low-income countries and low-income neighborhoods in the U.S.
• To advise and work collaboratively within and outside the Department of Psychiatry on epidemiologic design, sampling, and data collection
• To train the next generation of scientists in translational epidemiology

Current Research

• Multiple studies of prenatal exposure to toxins and medication and the risk of long term psychiatric and behavioral outcomes
• Multiple studies on the effects of use and misuse of drugs or alcohol and assessment of their prevalence
• Long term studies on the clinical course and moderating factors of three generations at high risk for depression, in collaboration with neuroimaging scientists and electrophysiologists to elucidate brain mechanisms and identify biomarkers
• Global studies to implement and disseminate sustainable and scalable evidence-based practices
• Use of medical records and large medical databases to understand healthcare economics, delivery, at-risk populations, prescribing practices, changes in medical delivery patterns, and to inform policy in N.Y. state and throughout the U.S.
• Adaptation of brief psychosocial interventions scalable for community settings for use in the U.S. and globally
• Develop new tools for monitoring substance abuse
• Provide mental health education and test its effectiveness in black churches
• Studies of periconceptual folic acid as a protective factor for ASD in the Autism Birth Cohort of the Norwegian Mother and Child Birth Cohort Study
• Conceptualization and measurement of major stressful life events over the life course
• Studies on the extent, at-risk populations, course, causes and consequences of the opioid epidemic.
• Investigation of the relationship between substance abuse and PTSD
• Test of the gateway hypothesis in rodents and identification of the molecular mechanisms underlying the priming effects of nicotine, alcohol, and marijuana (VIM) on cocaine

Areas of Expertise

• Prenatal and early life development: Ardesheer Talati, PhD
• Epidemiology of alcohol abuse, and technology enhancements: Deborah Hasin, PhD
• Family genetic studies, biomarkers and psychosocial Interventions: Myrna M. Weissman, PhD
• Gestational exposures and long term psychiatric outcomes: Alan Brown, MD
• Global mental health and implementation science: Milton Wainberg, MD
• Understanding mental health care delivery in populations: Marc Olfson, MD, MPH
• Implementation research on disparities: Sidney Hankerson, MD, MBA
• Translational electrophysiology, psychophysiology and MRI studies: Jürgen Kayser, PhD
• Epidemiology of substance abuse, including opioids, and post-traumatic stress disorder and molecular basis of epidemiological paradigms: Denise Kandel, PhD
• Polygenic risk scores, social determinants, electronic health records: Priya M.Wickramaratne, PhD

Core Facilities