Heather Ward, MD awarded NIDA grant to explore brain stimulation to reduce addiction among intractable smokers
Dr. Heather Burrell Ward, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of Neuromodulation Research was recently awarded a 5-year grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to test non-invasive brain stimulation treatments for people with schizophrenia and nicotine dependence. This research was highlighted in Discoveries in Medicine.
Nadia Zaim, MD
Nadia
Zaim
MD
Assistant Professor of Clinical Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Clinic Phone
615-936-3555
Village at Vanderbilt
nadia.zaim@vumc.org
Dr. Nadia Zaim is an Assistant Professor in the division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Dr. Zaim attended medical school at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio. After medical school, she trained in general pediatrics at Sinai Hospital of Baltimore. During her time as a general pediatrics resident, she witnessed the growing mental health crisis and limited resources available to children with mental health needs. She decided to pursue training in psychiatry, and completed her General Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Psychiatry training at Johns Hopkins Hospital where she served as chief fellow in her final year of training.
Upon graduation from fellowship, Dr. Zaim joined the faculty at Johns Hopkins Hospital. While on faculty, she served as Medical Director of the Consultation-Liaison Service. In addition to growing a clinical service, she was the associate training program director for the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship program and directed the Pediatric Resident mental health rotation. She also worked to grow a small integrated care program to support primary care pediatricians caring for patients with mental health needs.
Dr. Zaim joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in 2024 where she is serving as the Medical Director of the Consultation-Liaison Service. Clinically, she enjoys caring for patients with medical and psychiatric challenges, including somatic symptom disorders, delirium, and catatonia. She is passionate about program building to support Pediatricians caring for patients with mental and behavioral health needs, trainee education, and destigmatizing mental health in the medical setting and in the community.
R01 funding awarded to Julia Sheffield, PhD et al to study delusions associated with schizophrenia
The NIMH has recently funded a new R01 to study the computational, cognitive and neurobiological mechanisms underlying delusions in individuals with schizophrenia. Dr. Sheffield is the PI of the study with Co-I's Stephan Heckers, Aaron Brinen, Neil Woodward, Baxter Rogers, Jinyuan Liu and Philip Corlett (Yale School of Medicine). The grant will fund a 5-year clinical trial providing 16-weeks of psychotherapy for individuals with schizophrenia and strongly held paranoia.
Effects of open-label transdermal nicotine antidepressant augmentation on affective symptoms and executive function in late-life depression
A recent report from faculty and staff in the Vanderbilt Division of Geriatric Psychiatry demonstrates the potential benefit of adding transdermal nicotine patches to standard antidepressant medications for older adults with depression. The open-label study found that administration of nicotine patches safely resulted in improvement in mood and some measures of cognitive performance. This study supports that further work is needed, such as the ongoing placebo-controlled trial currently underway in the Vanderbilt Division of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Shannon Braida, LCSW
Shannon
N
Braida
Professional Staff
Division of General Psychiatry
shannon.braida@vumc.org
Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective disorder, Bipolar disorder I & II, SPMI
Shannon Braida is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who joined the Department in June 2024. She received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Missouri-Columbia (Go Tigers!) in 2018. Shannon's clinical background has been in intensive case management outpatient, mobile crisis intervention, psychiatric inpatient treatment, and private practice. Her main clinical & research focus is within the SPMI community, more specifically, schizophrenia & schizoaffective disorders.