The University of Wisconsin Department of Psychiatry, along with the HealthEmotions Research Institute and Center for Healthy Minds are pleased to announce a public talk by distinguished scientist and clinician, David Rubinow, MD.
*** This talk is free and open to the public! Please share with friends, family, and colleagues who may be interested in attending ***
Tuesday April 9th 5:00pm
Health Sciences Learning Center
750 Highland Avenue, Madison, WI 53705
Depression in Women: The Brain in Context
One of the most compelling questions in behavioral neuroscience is how do environmental, cell signaling and genetic factors interact to create a context that affects brain development, susceptibility to mental illness, and differential behavioral expression. Most biology is context-dependent, and these contextual effects contribute to the non-linear transform properties of the brain, in which the same stimulus may elicit a range of different responses. The role of context in the regulation of brain and generation of these different behavioral responses is wonderfully illustrated by examining the role of reproductive steroid hormones – estrogen and progesterone – in depression that occurs in women during periods of reproductive change: the menstrual cycle, peripartum, and perimenopausal. Appreciation of the impact of context-dependency will illuminate the following: 1) Why we ostensibly know so little about depression; 2) Why the Women’s Health Initiative drew erroneous conclusions about the impact of estradiol on the health of perimenopausal women; and 3) How normal levels and changes in reproductive hormones are responsible for triggering reproductive-related mood disorders in a susceptible sub-population of women (i.e., these women are differentially sensitive such that normal hormonal events elicit abnormal behavioral states).
Dr. David Rubinow is the Assad Meymandi Professor and Chair of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, School of Medicine. Prior to joining UNC, he was the Clinical Director of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and Chief of the Behavioral Endocrinology Branch. His research interests focus on neurobehavioral effects of gonadal steroids and how genetic variation contributes to differential behavioral response to changes in steroid signaling. Research methods used include administration of hormone super agonists and receptor blockers to manipulate the menstrual cycle and identify the central effects of gonadal steroids in isolation. These studies have demonstrated that, unlike mood disorders accompanying endocrinopathies, reproductive endocrine-related mood disorders represent abnormal responses to normal hormonal signals. Current NIH funded studies include investigations of continuous oral contraceptive administration in menstrual cycle-related mood disorders, estradiol effects on cardiovascular risk and mood dysregulation during the perimenopause, and biomarkers of postpartum depression. Additionally, the UNC Women’s Mood Disorders Program, which he directs, has the first and only NIH training fellowship in Women’s Mood Disorders. On the basis of his research, he was inducted into the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies in 2012. Dr. Rubinow is also the Director of the UNC Center for Innovation and Health Care System Transformation, which promotes the development of patient-centered innovations designed to address the current challenges facing our nation’s health care delivery system.
Read the full article at: http://healthemotions.org/