Ardesheer Talati, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology (in Psychiatry)
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Overview

Dr. Talati is Associate Professor of Clinical Neurobiology in Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and New York State Psychiatric Institute. Both a neuroscientist and psychiatric epidemiologist by training, his interests lie in following long term neurobiological, behavioral, and clinical consequences of gestational (pregnancy) exposures to maternal illness, medication and substance use.

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurobiology (in Psychiatry)

Administrative Titles

  • Investigator, Sackler Institute for Developmental Psychobiology
  • Research Scientist, New York State Psychiatric Institute

Gender

  • Male

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • PhD, Pharmacology & Neuroscience, Cornell University Medical College, NY
  • Fellowship in Clinical & Genetic Epidemiology, Columbia College of Physicians & Surgeons

Research

Dr. Talati is currently principal investigator of two multicenter R01s from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) that address long-term effect on brain and behavioral development among offspring who were exposed to maternal depression or antidepressant medications during pregnancy. These multisite studies include populations in the United States, Canada, and Denmark and when completed, will examine offspring outcomes from birth through early adulthood.

In addition to the above, Dr. Talati has been funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), the Brain and Behavior Research Foundation, and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. He has served on review committees for the National Institute of Health as well as for Netherlands and United Kingdom funding agencies. He has received awards from the American College for Neuropsychopharmacology and the Organization for Human Brain Mapping.

Research Interests

  • Birth Cohorts
  • Neurodevelopment
  • Prenatal Epidemiology

Grants

  1. Gestational SSRI exposure on the development of Functional Gastrointestinal Disorders 
    Grant: National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (R01DK130517)
    Role: Principal Investigator 
    Summary: This study tests the effects of SSRI antidepressant exposures during pregnancy on the development of infant functional gastrointestinal disorders and examine shifts towards a serotonin-producing microbiome that is transferred from mother to child as a potential mechanism.
  2. Effects of prenatal maternal depression and antidepressant exposures on offspring neurodevelopmental trajectories: A birth cohort study 
    Grant: National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH119510) 
    Role: Principal Investigator
    Summary: The purpose of this grant is to develop biosignatures related to risk of exposure to maternal depression or antidepressant exposures in pregnancy. We will recruit 375 pregnant women receiving care at tertiary medical center in Quebec, Canada, and follow them through pregnancy to characterize their symptom and medication patterns. Once the offspring are born, we will follow them longitudinally through the first two years of life on neuroimaging, electrophysiological, sleep, and behavioral assessments. We will also generate a biorepository including saliva, placenta, and cord blood, for the mother-child dyads. 
  3. A multicohort assessment of gestational SSRI exposure on psychiatric outcomes 
    Grant: National Institute of Mental Health (R01MH114967) 
    Role: Principal Investigator 
    Summary: The purpose of this grant is to study the long-term effects on offspring exposed to maternal depression or antidepressant medications during pregnancy. The study utilizes Danish National Register data covering the whole population and the Mayo Clinic’s Rochester Epidemiology Project and follows offspring outcomes from birth through early adulthood.
  4. Early life vulnerability to depression: Establishing a 4th generation cohort from a multigenerational family study of depression.
    Grant: Columbia University Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression.  
    Role: Principal Investigator 

Selected Publications

  1. Goncalves, P.D., Martins, S.S., Nmulugeta, N., Gebru, N.M., Ryan-Pettes, S.R., Allgaier, N., Potter, A., Thompson, W.T., Johnson, M., Garavan, H., Talati, A.*, Albaugh. M.* (shared senior authors). Associations between family history of alcohol and/or substance use problems and frontal cortical development from 9-13 years of age: a longitudinal analysis of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study®. Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, In Press.
  2. Talati, A. Maternal depression, prenatal SSRI exposure, and brain trajectories across childhood (2023). JAMA Psychiatry, 80 (12): 1191-1192. Doi: 10.1001/Jamapsychiatry.2023.2664.
  3. Bliddal, M., Wesselhoeft, R., Ernst, M., Strandberg-Larsen, K., Weissman, M.M., Gingrich, J.A., Talati, A.+, Pottegård, A+ (+equal senior authorship). Prenatal antidepressant exposure and emotional disorders until age 22: a Danish register study (2023). Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 17(1):73. doi: 10.1186/s13034-023-00624-9.
  4. Van Dijk, M.T.+, Talati, A.+ (+equal first authorship), Kashyap, P., Desai, K., Kelsall, N., Gameroff, M.J., Aw, N., Abraham, E., Anacker, C., Cullen, B., Cha, J., Weissman, M.M., Posner, J. Dentate Gyrus Microstructure is associated with Resilience after Exposure to Maternal Stress Across Two Human Cohorts (2023). Biological Psychiatry, doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2023.06.026.
  5. Talati, A., van Dijk, M.T., Pang, L, Hao, X., Wang, Z, Gameroff, M.J., Kayser, J., Shankman, S.A., Wickramaratne, P.J., Posner, J., Weissman, M.M. Putamen structure and function in familial risk for depression: a multimodal imaging study (2023). Biological Psychiatry, 92 (12): 932-41.
  6. Talati, A., Van Dijk, M.T., Weissman, M.M. Big or little data for MRI research in Psychiatry? (2023). Biological Psychiatry, 93 (1): e1-3. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2022.06.007.
  7. Svob, C., Murphy, E., Wickramaratne, P.J., Gameroff, M.J., Talati, A., Van Dijk, M.T., Yangchen, T., Weissman, M.M. Pre- and post-pandemic religiosity and mental health: a prospective study (2023). International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, doi: 10.3390/ijerph20116002.
  8. Murphy, E. van Dijk, M.T., Gameroff, M.J., Skipper, J., Svob, C., Weissman, M.M., Talati, A. The effects of the pandemic on mental health on persons with and without psychiatric history (2023). Psychological Medicine, 53(6):2476-2484.
  9. Adekkanattu, P., Olfson, M., Susser, L.C., Patra, B., Vakaria, V., Coombes, B.J., Fennessy, B., Lepow, L., Charney, A., Ryu, E., Miller, K.D., Pan, L., Yangchen, T., Talati, A., Wickramaratne, P.J., Mann, J.J., Weissman, M.M., Biernacka, J., Pathak, J. Comorbidity and Healthcare Utilization in Patients with Treatment Resistant Depression: A Largescale Retrospective Cohort Analysis Using Electronic Health Records (2023). Journal of Affective Disorders, 324: 102-113.
  10. Chase, H.W., Auerbach, R.P., Brent, D.A., Weissman, M.M. Posner, J.E., Talati, A. Dissociating resting state markers of suicidal ideation from familial risk factors for depression (2021). Neuropsychopharmacology, 46 (10): 1830-1838.
  11. Van Dijk, M.T., Cha, J., Semanek, D., Aw, N., Abraham, E., Gameroff, M., Wickramaratne, P.J., Weissman, M.M., Posner, J., Talati, A. Altered dentate gyrus microstructure in individuals at high familial risk for depression predicts future symptoms (2020). Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6 (1): 50-58.

Book Chapters

  1. Talati A, Weissman MM: Panic Disorder (in "Psychiatric Genetics"), Cambridge University Press, New York, NY, USA, 2012

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov