乌鸦传媒

NEW YORK CITY -- The biological basis for normal and abnormal mental function is emerging as a dominant theme in psychiatry research, and the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting that starts here Saturday won't be an exception.

Long-sought connections between brain and behavior are now coming into view, thanks to technologies including microbiology, genetics, and real-time imaging. These advances are showcased in some of the APA meeting's high-profile events, as described to 乌鸦传媒 by scientific program chair , of Columbia University here.

For example, -- the Columbia University psychiatrist and neuroscientist who won a Nobel Prize in 2000 for his work on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of memory -- is headlining not one, but two separate events -- a three-way discussion with outgoing APA president and actor Alan Alda, and also a lecture on his most recent research (about which, Muskin said, Kandel had been cagey on specifics.)

Another major lecture will be given by yet another Columbia psychiatrist, , on the role of G-protein-coupled receptors in"neurotransmission, which Muskin called the foundation for "the next generation of psychopharmacology" -- and also "very cool stuff."

Also on the platform will be , of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif. -- touted for a Nobel himself -- who has used a technology called optogenetics to probe psychiatric disorders including anxiety and depression as well as parkinsonian motor abnormalities. He is scheduled to talk about new research into "circuit dynamics," the study of physical neural connections and their relations to specific behaviors.

And , director of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Md., will address attendees on the broader landscape of the neuroscience-psychiatry intersection, which the Obama administration's BRAIN initiative is meant to inform.

However, "hard" neuroscience will still be sharing the spotlight with more traditional aspects of psychiatry.

Muskin himself will be chairing a session on "embedding" psychiatrists into hospitals' medical teams -- showing that lengths of stay were reduced, as were psychiatric hospitalizations. (He's also slated to give a talk on maintenance of certification titled "I Did It and It Ain't Rocket Science.")

One year into the DSM-5 era, several sessions will be devoted to helping psychiatrists integrate it into their practices. The author of "The Pocket Guide to the DSM-5 Diagnostic Exam," , of the University of Colorado in Denver, will be on hand to walk attendees through the process.

Also, former APA President, of the Menninger Clinic and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, will address the classification of personality disorders -- a hot potato -- during the DSM-5 development process.

A new taxonomy for these conditions was dropped as DSM-5 was being finalized, Muskin said. The system retains the same general structure as in DSM-IV, but Oldham will lay out the rationale for the revised approach, which Muskin predicted "is going to be the way we diagnose personality disorders in the future."

, formerly the U.S. Army's top psychiatrist and now retired, appears all over the annual meeting program, discussing the role of female psychiatrists in the military, treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder, the intersection of alcohol and sexual assault, complementary and alternative medicine for soldiers, and animal-assisted therapies, among other topics.

Psychiatry residents may benefit from a program to be given at the meeting to teach mind-body relaxation techniques, Muskin said. Not only may these methods help the residents deal with the heavy stresses on medical trainees, but they can then teach them to their patients as well.

Lighter fare is on the menu, too, Muskin emphasized. Among them -- the psychiatric story of pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, the latest in a , of Weill Cornell Medical College here, himself a concert pianist. In mid-career, Rachmaninoff became crippled by depression, but treatment by psychiatrist Nikolai Dahl helped him to resume composing, creating his most famous works and becoming the most popular concert pianist of his time.

Muskin also highlighted a film to be shown at the meeting: "," a documentary by "Sopranos" star Joe Pantoliano described as a "candid, often humorous" take on his own and others' struggles with depression and other mental illness. It's part of an effort by Pantoliano to erase the stigma of mental illness, letting the tens of millions of Americans with such conditions know that they are not alone.

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