"Childhood irritability and neural mechanisms of frustration"
Abstract
This presentation will focus on irritability, which is common and impairing in youth. Longitudinal associations of irritability will be discussed. One mechanism of irritability is maladaptive responses to frustration, defined as emotional and behavioral responses to blocked goal attainment. Recent data regarding brain responses to frustration and their associations with irritability will be presented.
About the Speaker
Ellen Leibenluft, MD is senior investigator and chief of the section on mood dysregulation and neuroscience at Intramural Research Program, National Institute of Mental Health. Dr. Leibenluft’s research involves the use of cognitive neuroscience techniques and neuroimaging modalities, including functional MRI, to elucidate brain mechanisms mediating severe irritability in youth and to use that knowledge to suggest novel treatment interventions. Dr. Leibenluft completed her BA from Yale University summa cum laude, her MD from Stanford University, and psychiatric residency at Georgetown University. She has authored more than 300 publications and served as Reviews Editor for Biological Psychiatry, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and editorial board member of the American Journal of Psychiatry. She is Co-Chair of the American Psychiatric Association DSM-5 Steering Committee. Her honors include election to the National Academy of Medicine, the NIMH Director’s Merit Award, and the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Julius Axelrod Mentoring Award.
Objectives
The activity is designed to help learners
- Discuss longitudinal associations of anxiety, unipolar depression, and suicidality with childhood irritability.
- Link data regarding maladaptive neural responses to frustration with irritability
- Identify potential implications of these data for treatment
This talk is sponsored by the Barbara Gay Lecture Fund, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. This educational activity received no commercial support.