Department of Psychiatry

February 29, 2024

Study targets nicotine craving in schizophrenia

Vanderbilt’s Heather Burrell Ward, MD, has received a five-year, $928,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to test whether an externally applied magnetic field can reduce nicotine craving in people with schizophrenia.

By Bill Snyder
October 19, 2023

VUMC co-hosts the 2023 Mid-South Addiction Conference Oct. 27 and 28

The second-annual 2023 Mid-South Addiction Conference is Oct. 27 and 28 at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

By Danny Bonvissuto
July 19, 2023

Study highlights consequences of chronic benzodiazepine use

The lived experience of colleagues who took benzodiazepines and experienced distressing effects inspired a recent study that found the depressant is linked to nervous system injury and negative life effects during and after use.

By Danny Bonvissuto
July 17, 2023

Academy for Excellence in Education elects 13 new members

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Academy for Excellence in Education has elected 13 new members for 2023.

By Doug Campbell
September 26, 2022

Gender differences with bladder pain

Gender differences in the pain experiences and treatment needs of people with a urologic pain syndrome could be used to improve interventions, Vanderbilt researchers report.

By Leigh MacMillan
April 28, 2022

ASD study explores link between repetitive motion, depression

A Vanderbilt found that research into depression risk and resilience factors for adults with ASD is also critical to guide proper screening and intervention efforts.

By Emily Stembridge
April 21, 2022

Children with autism report greater gender diversity: study

Vanderbilt researchers found that children with autism report higher rates of gender diversity — the way in which an individual experiences gender distinct from social norms for their gender assigned at birth — than their typically developing peers.
By Emily Stembridge
April 21, 2022

Taylor, Newhouse, Petrie honored by geriatric psychiatry association

Vanderbilt's Warren Taylor, MD, MHSc, Paul Newhouse, MD, and William Petrie, MD, were recently honored at the 2022 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry (AAGP) Awards.
By Emily Stembridge
February 28, 2022

VUMC mourns loss of former Psychopharmacology director Ban

Thomas Arthur Ban, MD, emeritus professor of Psychiatry and former director of Vanderbilt's Division of Psychopharmacology, died Feb. 4. He was 92.
By Kathy Whitney
December 2, 2021

Study links depression scores, white blood cell count

By Emily Stembridge
September 30, 2021

Project seeks to treat Alzheimer’s in people with Down syndrome

A joint project between the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center and the Vanderbilt Center for Cognitive Medicine will help deliver Alzheimer’s disease therapies and treatments to people with Down syndrome (DS). 
By Emily Stembridge
September 20, 2021

Brain circuits in schizophrenia

Vanderbilt psychiatrists are probing brain circuit hyperactivity implicated in schizophrenia, with the idea that normalizing the hyperactivity may improve cognitive processes.
By Leigh MacMillan
August 5, 2021

NIMH support bolsters early psychosis research efforts

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences has received an additional $4 million from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to study the evolution of hippocampal dysfunction in the early stage of psychosis.
By Emily Stembridge