Overview of Department Research
For the past ten years, the Department of Psychiatry has had an extensive track record of funded research, largely from the NIMH. The major scholarly and research interests of the department include the consequences of exposure to trauma and their treatment, including domestic violence and terrorism, adolescent substance abuse, mental health services for low-income women, psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder and depression, and detection and treatment of mental disorders in primary care settings. Presently, the department has over $1.3 million in grant funding, and has 17 active grants. In 1998, the department received a research infrastructure grant (Research Infrastructure Support Program, or RISP) from NIMH, Mental Health Services for Women in Public Medical Care, to continue to develop and strengthen this area of research, with an emphasis on underserved populations (low income and minority women), and on those exposed to trauma and interpersonal violence. Departmental research collaborations include those with the Departments of Family Medicine and Pediatrics, and the School of Nursing and Health, as well as with community settings in Prince George's County, Montgomery County, and Unity Health Care, Inc., in Washington DC.
FUNDED RESEARCH ACTIVITIES
Fall 2006
DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY
GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY MEDICAL SCHOOL
Dr. Joyce Chung
PI of a K-23 from NIMH (K23 MH067664) entitled Ethnographic Studies of Depression and Help-Seeking. The overall goal of this proposal is to develop expertise in understanding sociocultural barriers and facilitators of mental health treatment among low-income community residents. This expertise will inform the development of community-based intervention trials to improve acceptance and effectiveness of treatments for depression and other mental health treatment. This project runs through 1/09.
Drs. Chung and Green are collaborating with Georgetown’s National Center for Cultural Competence (NCCC) on a project entitled The Cultural and Linguistic Competence Health Practitioner Assessment CME Model. NCCC grant Co-Directors are Dr. Suzanne Bronheim and Tawara Goode, MA, with funding from Initiative for Decreasing Disparities in Depression supported by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals. This web-based curriculum aims to increase physician knowledge and self-awareness as they apply to treating depression in diverse primary care populations
This project runs through 9/07.
Dr. Mary Ann Dutton
PI of a R34 from NIMH (R34 MH070565) entitled Telehealth Trauma Intervention for Low-SES Abused Women. This project is designed to develop and evaluate the effectiveness and cost of an innovative and culturally competent telephone intervention for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in low SES African American battered women. The intervention combines components of cognitive processing therapy for PTSD with advocacy interventions, psychoeducation and skills development, and grief counseling. Co-PI Dr. Stacey Kaltman and Drs. Bonnie Green, Joyce Chung, Janice Krupnick, are collaborating on this project. The study is funded through 12/07.
PI of a Cosmos Corporation project entitled Development and Validation of a Coercive Control Measure for Intimate Partner Violence. This project will develop a conceptual model of coercive control by conducting a comprehensive review of the literature followed by input from an expert panel. The study will then develop an ecologically and statistically valid measure of nonviolent coercive control using ethnographic and classical test theory methodologies. Dr. Joyce Chung is collaborating on the project. The study is funded through 12/06.
Dr. Bonnie Green
PI of an NIMH-funded Developing Center (P20 MH068450-01A1) entitled Trauma Interventions for Low-income Women in Primary Care. The goal of the Georgetown Center for Trauma and the Community is to develop innovative and sustainable interventions to address trauma-related mental health needs in primary care settings serving low-income, mostly minority populations through academic-community partnerships with local jurisdictions. To increase the adoption and sustainability of these interventions, the trauma-related services are being developed in close collaboration with four community partners: the Department of Health in Prince George’s County, MD; the Primary Care Coalition in Montgomery County, MD; Greater Baden Medical Services in Upper Marlboro, MD and Unity Health Care, Inc. in the District of Columbia. Psychiatry faculty members on this grant include departmental Co-Investigators Drs. Chung, Dutton, Epstein, Kaltman, Krupnick, Townsend, and Tractenberg. Other Co-Investigators include School of Nursing faculty Drs. Michael Relf and Deborah Schiavone; Family Medicine faculty Dr. Kavitha Bhat Schelbert; and United Biosource colleagues Drs. Revicki, Frank, and Stull. The grant runs through 6/09.
Co-Investigator of an NIMH-funded grant (R34 MH070683) entitled Primary Care for PTSD and PTSD Symptoms. PI is Dr. Lisa Meredith (RAND Corp.). This study of primary care providers is designed to better understand primary care trauma management and to identify promising evidence-based strategies for improving the care of patients suffering from the psychological effects of trauma. The research is being conducted in collaboration with the Clinical Directors Network, Inc. (CDN) in the New York area, a community-oriented practice-based research network that provides primary and preventive health care services for poor, minority, and underserved populations. The grant runs through 2/07.
Dr. Stacey Kaltman
Site-PI of a SAMHSA-funded grant (H79 TI15433) entitled Brief Effective Adolescent Treatment of Substance Abuse. PI is Dr. Michael Mason (Villanova). This project provides treatment for adolescents and their families by addressing the patients’ substance abuse, physical health, and mental health in a coordinated manner with a multidisciplinary treatment team that includes a pediatrician, nurse practitioner, child and adolescent psychiatrist, addiction psychiatrist, and mental health and addiction counselors. This grant runs through 9/07.
Dr. Barbara Schwartz
PI of an NARSAD/Essel Foundation – funded grant (NARSAD llA) entitled Facial Expressions of Emotion in Schizophrenia. This project studies implicit processing of emotion cues in the face and the neural structures that underlie this function in schizophrenia. This grant runs through 1/07.
Dr. Tiffany Townsend
PI of a SAMHSA 5 year funded grant (5H79SP10687-04) entitled “HIV and Substance Use Prevention for African American Girls”. Dr. Townsend’s project is a community collaborative, HIV prevention program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The program, entitled I.S.I.S. is designed to provide an integrated substance abuse/HIV prevention program that is tailored to the needs of African American adolescent girls between the ages of 11 and 14, who reside in Southwest Philadelphia. I.S.I.S., which is an acronym for Intelligent Sisters Improving Selves, attempts to use the resilience and protective factors present in the population to enhance overall well being and promote healthy, adaptive behaviors among girls in this community.
Recent grants that are in the process of data analysis and write-up include the following:
An NIMH-funded grant entitled Treatment of Depression in Disadvantaged Gynecology Patients (RO1 MH56864). PI was Dr. Jeanne Miranda (UCLA). This project screened poor African American, Latina, and White women for depression in family planning and WIC clinics in the greater DC area, and treated depressed women using one of two treatments (group cognitive-behavioral or medication). Treatments were compared to a “referral only” condition. Site PI on the study was Dr. Joyce Chung, and GU Co-Investigators were Drs. Krupnick and Green.
An NIMH-funded grant entitled Effects on Children of Treating Maternal Depression (RO1 MH58384). PI was Dr. Ann Riley at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. Dr. Joyce Chung was the GU site PI. This grant studied the children of the mothers treated in the “Treatment of Depression” study to evaluate changes in the children associated with treatment of the mothers.
An R21 from NIMH (MH58220) entitled Interpersonal Group Therapy for PTSD in Low-Income Women funded the development and pilot testing of a new group treatment for poor and minority women who had PTSD related to interpersonal violence. Dr. Janice Krupnick was PI, with Dr. Green collaborating.
An R03 from NIMH (MH064739) entitled PTSD & Intimate Partner Violence: A National Sample. This proposed study examined risk and protective factors associated with current PTSD symptoms among a nationally representative sample of adult women (397) who lived with an intimate partner, and who reported being sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, stalked, and/or threatened by them at some point during the course of the relationship. Dr. Mary Ann Dutton was PI.
A project funded from NIJ to Cosmos Corporation in collaboration with Georgetown University, Department of Psychiatry entitled Use and Outcomes of Protection Orders by Battered Immigrant Women. This overall goal of the project was to examine the decision-making, accessibility, and effectiveness of civil protection orders for battered immigrant women. Dr. Dutton was the site PI at Georgetown.
A Department of Justice grant entitled Ecological Model of Battered Women’s Experience over Time. This study characterized and testes a model for longitudinal patterns of battered women’s strategic and traumatic responses to violence, as well as help-seeking, social support and emotional well-being. Battered women’s experiences within criminal and civil protection-order courts and shelters were also investigated. The PI was Dr. Mary Ann Dutton; Dr. Stacey Kaltman was a collaborator.
A Center for Disease Control and Prevention grant entitled, Longitudinal Study of Battered Women in the Health Care System. This study compared the results from women recruited in health care settings with an ongoing NIJ-funded study of 400 battered women recruited from legal and shelter Intimate Partner Violence (IPV) services in the same community. The goal of the study was to understand patterns of female IPV victims’ experiences with violence and in the health care system over time to develop prevention strategies. Dr. Stacey Kaltman collaborated with PI, Dr. Dutton, on the project.
An NIMH-funded grant (R01 DK56975) to Virginia Commonwealth University was conducted at Georgetown and Children’s National Medical Center. This project was a longitudinal study of memory and learning skills in children with insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus. A group of 120 diabetic adolescents ages 12-15 were assessed over a 4-year period to ascertain the functional impact of memory and learning skills on daily self-care behaviors, including adherence to a treatment regimen. Modality specific learning and memory patterns over time were evaluated and correlated. Dr. Clarissa Holmes (VCU) was PI, and Dr. Erika Swift from Psychiatry was Co-Investigator and Site PI.
A Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Award (F32 MH71011) entitled Patterns of PTSD Symptoms in High-Risk Women over Time. This project utilized advanced analytic strategies to investigate relationships among PTSD symptoms, and how they cluster over time in longitudinal samples of low-income women who have experienced interpersonal violence. Primary mentor on this project is Dr. Dutton. Dr. Elizabeth Krause was the PI.
An R01 from NIMH (MH60696) entitled Physicians’ Decisions for the Depressed Medically Ill. The project investigated patient and physician factors associated with physicians’ quality of care for depression among general internists and family physicians through use of videotapes varying in regard to medical morbidity, patient attributions for depression, treatment preferences, race, and gender. Dr. Steven Epstein was the PI.
