Mental Health

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, executive leaders, community partners and Patient and Family Advisory Council members gathered last week for a 1.5-day workshop focused on integrating behavioral health care across the institution.

With the aid of a four-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health, researchers at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) will apply new techniques to investigate treatment resistance of two devastating mental disorders — major depressive disorder, which befalls 15 percent of people at some point in their lives, and schizophrenia, which affects approximately 1 percent.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s School-Based Psychiatry Program is now offering telemedicine services for children and families who may have barriers to accessing appointments with a practitioner through traditional clinics.

“I began to realize that people aren’t homeless just because they lack housing.”

According to a new study by Vanderbilt researchers, normal brain aging patterns in patients with a psychotic disorder occur at an accelerated rate, impacting the patient’s cognitive functioning and suggesting treatment intervention in the early psychosis period may improve long-term outcomes.

Mike Mitchell, visual arts instructor at Father Ryan High School, and Meg Benningfield, MD, MSCI, division director for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, have been close friends since their children enrolled in the same kindergarten six years ago.

Vanderbilt’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology (OB-GYN) was recently awarded a $200,000 grant by the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) to provide increased access to medication-assisted treatment for uninsured women with substance use disorders.