2023 Year in Review:
Breakthroughs in research & Discovery

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine is committed to compassionate patient care, exceptional education and advancements in mental health research. Check out some of the top achievements and breakthroughs by the Northwestern Medicine Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences team over the past year.

CLINICAL UPDATES AND ADVANCES

Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry Inpatient Unit
The Norman and Ida Stone Institute of Psychiatry Inpatient Unit at Northwestern Memorial Hospital delivers comprehensive and personalized care to patients. In this video, we share details of the unit’s innovative design, as well as the team approach to comprehensive consultations, diagnostic testing and treatments for some of the most complex behavioral health disorders.
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Northwestern Medicine Forensic Psychiatry in Legal Proceedings and Public Health Solutions
Michael Brook, PhD, associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Medicine and director of the Isaac Ray Research Program in the Division of Psychiatry and the Law, goes into detail about the role of forensic psychiatry, psychology and neuropsychology in legal proceedings. He discusses the expertise of the division's highly trained team in a variety of legal issues and clinical subspecialties, as well as the research he is leading to address community violence using a public health approach.
Northwestern Medicine Behavioral Health Team Integration in the Emergency Department
Andrew C. New, MD, assistant professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Medicine, discusses the benefits of having a behavioral health team integrated into the Emergency Department at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. He talks about how this team of psychiatrists and other clinicians works in tandem with Emergency Department staff, as well as his interest in medical education with residents working in this environment.
The Living Room Addresses Mental Health in a Safe Space
The Living Room in the Northwestern Medicine Ben Gordon Center in DeKalb, Illinois offers a safe, comfortable and nonclinical space for those who need help resolving nonemergency mental health crises. It serves as an alternative to an emergency department or psychiatric hospitalization. 
Northwestern Medicine Neuropsychology
James L. Reilly, PhD, associate professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Northwestern Medicine, discusses neuropsychological testing at Northwestern Medicine and how teams use it to establish a baseline of brain function to measure rehabilitation progress in patients with brain injuries. He goes into detail about the multidisciplinary approach to “brain mapping” in the OR that provides real-time feedback during brain surgery.
Medical School Establishes New Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has established the Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, a collaborative hub created to unite interdisciplinary scientists to understand neural mechanisms underlying mental illness, elucidate mechanisms of psychotropic drug action and develop novel therapeutics.

Research news and discoveries

Your Body's Own Cannabinoid Molecules Calm You During Stress
​A Northwestern Medicine study in mice, published in Cell Reports, discovered that the amygdala releases endogenous cannabinoid molecules under stress, and these molecules dampen the incoming stress alarm from the hippocampus. These results provide more support for the hypothesis that the endogenous cannabinoid molecules are a body’s natural coping response to stress.
Antipsychotic Drugs Work Differently Than Scientists Believed
A finding from Northwestern Medicine scientists, published in Nature Neuroscience, provided a new avenue to develop more effective drugs to treat the debilitating symptoms of schizophrenia. Traditionally, investigators have screened antipsychotic drug candidates by evaluating their effects on mouse behavior, but the approach used by a Northwestern lab outperformed these traditional approaches in terms of predicting efficacy in patients.
Gender-Affirming Hormones Improve Mental Health in Transgender and Nonbinary Youth
Transgender and nonbinary youth experienced significant improvement in appearance congruence and sustained improvements in depression and anxiety over two years after starting treatment with gender-affirming hormones, according to a multicenter U.S. study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

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Publications


​Effects of a Smartphone-Based Self-Management Intervention for Individuals With Bipolar Disorder on Relapse, Symptom Burden and Quality of Life
Featuring: Evan H. Goulding, MD, PhD; Cynthia A. Dopke, PhD; David C. Mohr, PhD; Mary Morrissey Kwasny, ScD
 
Alternation in Functional Connectivity Within Default Mode Network After Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in Borderline Personality Disorder
Featuring: Jordan H. Grafman, PhD
 
Light Therapy for Adolescent Depression: A Scoping Review
Featuring: Addie Li, MD; Dorothy K. Sit, MD
 
Perinatal Depression Screening Among Sexual Minority Women
Featuring: Leiszle Rae Lapping-Carr, PhD; Ashley Dennard, MD; Katherine L. Wisner, MD
 
An Overview of Adolescent Psychostimulant Use
Featuring: Kaitlyn N. Kunstman, MD
 
Peripheral Inflammation Is Associated With Impairments of Inhibitory Behavioral Control and Visual Sensorimotor Function in Psychotic Disorders
Featuring: James L. Reilly, PhD
 
Hospitalization Experiences and Post-traumatic Stress in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Opportunities for Change
Featuring: Tiffany H. Taft, MD; Kathryn N. Tomasino, PhD; Anjali Pandit, PhD; Stephen B. Hanauer, MD
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