Sultan Lab for Mental Health Informatics

The Sultan Lab focuses on the interface of electronic databases, mental health, and substance use epidemiology, and evidence-based treatments for common mental health conditions.

Areas of Research Expertise

• Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
  • The Sultan Lab has conducted multiple studies on ADHD. One of which measured the rate at which youths with ADHD were prescribed antipsychotic medication, and found that only half of these prescriptions were given with a potential clinical diagnostic rationale. In another study, our researchers quantified rates of mental health comorbidities in adolescents with ADHD, compared the risks of adverse behaviors among adolescents with and without ADHD, and found that youth with ADHD have an elevated risk for a range of adverse behaviors, including suicide attempts. Read more about ADHD here. 
• Cannabis and vaping
  • In a recent study, our team determined that Nondisordered Cannabis Use (NDCU; cannabis use below the DSM-5 disordered use diagnostic threshold) was significantly associated with adverse mental health, cognitive, behavioral, academic, and legal outcomes. These results are salient given the increasing deregulation of cannabis. The Sultan Lab is currently conducting multiple ongoing studies regarding cannabis use. With regards to vaping, the Sultan Lab has published a study on whether e-cigarette use serves as an aid to smoking reduction or not, and found that e-cigarette use is related to more rather than less intensive cigarette use. Read more about cannabis here.
• Smartphones and Social Media 
  • Dr. Ryan Sultan and the Mental Health Informatics Lab advocate for universal guidelines on screen time for youth, emphasizing the importance of "sundown times" to limit evening smartphone use among teens. Their research highlights the developmental challenges adolescents face in managing screen time, linking excessive use to sleep disruption, increased anxiety, and depressive symptoms. Currently, the Sultan Lab team is using Big Data to understand the negative consequences that social media use may have on mental health, particularly in youth, to better inform their guidelines and recommendations. Read more about smartphones, social media, and their impact on mental health here. 
• Ketamine
  • Dr. Ryan Sultan has been at the forefront of reasearch regarding the use of ketamine to treat treatment-resistant depression since 2011. He was the first to combine ketamine with Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) under the guidance of Yale psychiatrist Dr. John Krystal, offering a novel treatment option for severe depression. Currently, his lab is focused on understanding the mechanisms of ketamine's antidepressant effects, particularly its role in promoting neurogenesis, and is dedicated to refining treatment protocols and educating clinicians and the public about its potential. Read more about the Ketamine here. 
• Schizophrenia and Psychosis
  • In 2015, the FDA relaxed CBC monitoring guidelines for clozapine use to improve access for individuals with schizophrenia, prompting the Mental Health Informatics Lab at Columbia University to evaluate its impact using de-identified data from the Veterans Affairs Electronic Health Record system. Their analysis showed that the less restrictive guidelines did not increase agranulocytosis cases and potentially increased clozapine prescriptions, suggesting improved access and safety. This study highlights the power of health informatics in evaluating policy changes and guiding future interventions to enhance treatment options for schizophrenia. Read more about schizophrenia and psychosis here. 
• Electronic Health Records (EHRs)
• Natural Language Processing (NLP)    
• Large Languge Models (LLM)

Current Projects

Using Natural Language Processing (NLP) to Process Electronic Health Record (EHR) Data to Evaluate Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS) Use in Individuals with Comorbid Psychiatric Conditions. The Sultan Lab’s current project aims to integrate pediatric psychiatry and research with Natural Language Processing (NLP), to identify key factors with e-cigarette (ENDS) use in individuals with mental health conditions through clinical notes.

Grants

• Elaine Schlosser Lewis Fund for Attention and Learning Disorders (American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)
• Translational Research in Child Psychiatric Disorders (National Institute for Mental Health, Federal Government)