Warren D. Taylor, M.D., MHSc, and Jennifer U. Blackford, Ph.D., professors of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, have written a new publication detailing the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of front-line clinicians.  The manuscript, published in The Annals of Internal Medicine, describes physiological changes that occur with stress that lead to burnout and mental health disorders.  It challenges many providers' reluctance to seek treatment and proposes strategies to maintain mental health.

Jenni Blackford, PhD and Meg Benningfield, MD published a viewpoint in JAMA psychiatry along with Kristy Allen, PhD from University of Tennessee, highlighting the need for a greater emphasis on childhood anxiety in psychiatry research and practice.  Anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental health conditions among youth and contribute to significant costs for society.  In this piece, Drs.

Researchers from Vanderbilt University Medical Center are investigating whether participation in a specially designed theatre program can improve so

High levels of stress and anxiety can be debilitating, especially for health care providers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic. But there are ways they can protect themselves and their ability to provide the best and most compassionate care.

M.D./Ph.D. student Elizabeth Flook spearheaded a paper published in the journal Addiction Biology. The review paper, titled "Anxiety during abstinence from alcohol: A systematic review of rodent and human evidence for the anterior insula's role in the abstinence network," was a joint collaboration between Jennifer Blackford and Danny Winder's research labs describing the role of the anterior insula in abstinence. 

A Nicholas Hobbs Discovery Grant and a Director’s Strategic Priorities Grant have been awarded to Vanderbilt Kennedy Center (VKC) investigators for 2020-21. The grants aim to further our understanding of the neurocognitive effects of neonatal opioid withdrawal syndrome and to explore the brain function of comorbid reading comprehension and math problem solving learning disabilities.