In the News

The Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) Nicholas Hobbs Discovery Awards and Director’s Strategic Priorities Grants have been announced for the 2022-23 award cycle. Projects address spatial processing, repetitive movements, adaptation of an intervention for Spanish-speaking families, and improving diagnostic approaches and treatment strategies for autistic individuals with co-occurring intellectual disability.

Process must be customized to meet needs of individuals who have trouble naming and sharing emotions. Recently, emergency departments nationwide have seen a drastic upswing in young autistic people presenting with suicidal thoughts and behaviors. In response, Vanderbilt University Medical Center researchers, writing in Pediatrics, have suggested ways that clinicians and emergency department staff can adapt suicide safety plans to meet their special needs and enhance quality of care.

Associate Professor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Carissa Cascio, Ph.D., recently received national news coverage for her work on affective touch and autism. The story, titled "'I will feel actual rage.’ Unusual responses to kind touches could help explain autism traits," was originally covered in Spectrum News and picked up by Science Magazine. The article discusses findings from her lab and others.

Blythe Corbett, Ph.D., Associate  Director of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences and Psychology, was recently published in the December 2016 edition of the AMA Journal of Ethics. Her article, "Autism, Art, and Accessibility to Theater," discusses accessibility of the dramatic arts to those on the autism spectrum and uses an attributional model of stigma to explain potential differences in knowledge, attitudes, and behavior toward people with mental illness.

Katherine Gotham, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, was published recently in two peer-mediated journals.