RESEARCH AND SCHOLARLY ACTIVITY

The Department of Psychiatry is one of the major recipients of government and private research funding within the School of Medicine. Traditionally, residents have participated in the research and scholarly activities of department by carrying out original research, preparing for and participating in Grand Rounds presentations and Journal Clubs.  While our typical resident is not planning a research career, it is not unusual for a Stony Brook resident to become excited by research and the prospect of a research career. A number of our graduates have gone on to very productive and stimulating research and academic careers.

Research projects may be carried out with clinical faculty or research faculty. The interested resident has the possibility of engaging in clinical or bench research. Facilities are at the Health Science Center, University Hospital, Stony Brook University Main Campus, and the Brookhaven National Laboratories. Research faculty are typically funded by large-scale external grants from the NIH which support and attest to their cutting-edge work. A partial listing of research faculty mentors with ongoing or soon-to-begin major (R01-level) studies includes:

• Anissa Abi-Dargham (neurobiology of psychosis and addiction)
• Ramin Parsey (neuroimaging in mood disorders)
• Christine DeLorenzo (biomarkers of major depressive disorder)
• Roman Kotov (psychiatric epidemiology and nosology)
• Scott Moeller (neuroimaging in addiction)
• Jared Van Snellenberg (neuroimaging in psychosis)
• Katherine Jonas (genetics and psychosis)
• James Swain (opioids and pregnancy/early parenthood)
• Greg Perlman (adolescent substance use trajectories)
• Wenchao Qu (PET radiotracer development)

Although the strength of the Department’s research efforts are in Brain Imaging and Psychiatric Epidemiology, other opportunities abound, particularly for clinical research studies involving the Department’s busy clinical services. In many cases, clinical faculty are heavily involved in research studies and quality improvement projects. Some of these clinical faculty mentors include:

• Brian Bronson (improving hospital outcomes)
• Nikhil Palekar (Alzheimer’s and dementia clinical trials)
• Adam Gonzalez (Mind/Body Center)
• Brittain Mahaffey (interventions for maternal stress)
• Wilfred Farquharson (improving cultural sensitivity among providers)
• William Calabrese (health interventions in tribal communities)
• Lucian Manu (neurostimulation and ketamine outcomes)
• Patricia Osborn (suicide postvention program)
• Genna Hymowitz (eating disorders)