In the News

Adolescents who are struggling with intense emotional, behavioral and social difficulties may find an alternate care path to an inpatient stay through Vanderbilt Psychiatric Hospital’s Adolescent Partial Hospitalization Program. The program, which runs weekdays from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., is a group-based model designed to provide comprehensive evaluation and treatment services for patients who would normally be admitted to an inpatient unit.  

An Addiction Consultation Service, specialized training for physicians and changes in the language used in addiction cases are the first of many in a series of new clinical approaches being offered around addiction care as Vanderbilt University Medical Center — and the rest of the country — see an increased demand for such services.

Jeffrey Stovall, M.D., associate professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and affiliate of the Vanderbilt Institute for Global Health, was invited by Physicians for Human Rights to travel to the federal detention center in Dilley, TX, to provide psychiatric evaluations for women who have fled Central America and who are applying for asylum in the U.S.. These women had been recently reunited with their children from whom they were separated at the U.S. border. 

David Marcovitz, Ph.D., assistant professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and medical director, Addiction Consult Team, is co-directing a four-hour course at the national meeting of the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry titled "Practical Guide to Offering Office-Based Opioid Treatment." In addition, he is one of the co-authors for the paper " Correlates of Opioid Abstinence in a 42-Month Post-Treatment Naturalistic Follow-up Study of Prescription Opioid Dependence," currently in press for the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Kimberly Brown, Ph.D., ABPP, associate professor of Clinical Psychiatry and director, Forensic Evaluation Team, was recently invited to present at a meeting of the Tennessee Psychological Association (TPA) on Violence and Mental Illness in November 2018. Brown was also featured in national news coverage for USA Today's newspaper article "Playing with Fire. Click here to read the article.

Jonathan Becker, D.O., assistant professor of Clinical Psychiatry, recently published his paper "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Conditions Other than Major Depressive Disorder" in the journal Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America. Click here to view the abstract.

Stephan Heckers, MD, MSc, William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Schizophrenia Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, was recently recognized by the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) with a 2018 Exemplary Psychiatrist Award.  

A Vanderbilt University Medical Center pilot study of treating late-life depression in nonsmokers with transdermal nicotine (nicotine patch) has yielded some promising results, but the study’s author cautions that more study is needed. Late-life depression — depression that occurs in adults 60 years or older — is characterized by poor response to antidepressant medications and often memory issues. About half of those treated for late-life depression fail to respond to initial treatments.

Two Vanderbilt University researchers have been awarded Blake A. Jenkins Discovery Awards in support of basic and/or translational research into bipolar disorder and related conditions with an emphasis on early detection, intervention and utilizing brain imaging.  

Kathey Gracey, M.Ed., Programs Director, Vanderbilt Center of Excellence for Children in State Custody, received the Community Professional Excellence & Innovation Award in Social & Emotional Learning at the eighth annual Socail & Emotional Learning Conference in Nashville. Gracey has dedicated more than 25 years of service in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences serving children and families at risk of going into state custody. View her recognition here.