EAST PROVIDENCE – Dr. Daniel P. Dickstein, director of Bradley Hospital’s Pediatric Mood, Imaging and Neurodevelopment (Pedi-MIND) Program, has been recognized with a 2010 Klerman Award for outstanding achievements in brain and behavior research.
Dickstein was one of five researchers honored by NARSAD, a donor-supported research fund that since 1987 has awarded more than $257 million to scientists across the United States and in 28 other countries to support research on mental illness, childhood disorders such as autism and attention-deficit disorder, and more.
Dickstein, who received a 2006 NARSAD Young Investigator grant, was cited for his important contributions to the neurobiology of bipolar disorder in children.
In his Pedi-MIND program, Dickstein is using brain imaging, computerized behavioral tasks and genetic analyses to determine how children with bipolar disorder and other problems differ from their healthy peers. By examining “reversal learning” in particular – the ability to flexibly adapt a response to changing conditions when an initial answer is no longer correct – he has found neural variations in children with bipolar disorder.
“The goal of our research is to identify and understand biological or behavioral markers of mood disorders in children, which could eventually help physicians make more accurate diagnoses and lead to more effective treatments,” said Dickstein, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University.
The Klerman award was established in 1994 by Myrna Weissman in memory of her husband, Dr. Gerald L. Klerman, a major figure in psychiatry whose career included innovative research in depression, outstanding teaching and mentoring.
Dickstein has several ongoing studies for children and teens with bipolar disorder, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and anxiety disorders. He is also recruiting healthy children for those studies. To learn more, visit pedimind.lifespan.org.
