Department of Psychiatry   

Radu Saveanu, MD, Chair

The first academic Department of Psychiatry at The Ohio State University was established in 1951. Today, the Department is one of the best in the nation, attracting patients, faculty, students and researchers from around the world. In 1996, the University Hospital Board of Trustees formed a joint venture with Worthington’s Harding Hospital, the area’s only private hospital serving psychiatric patients. This integration allows clinicians to provide a comprehensive continuum of care and provides opportunities to develop and test new treatments and strategies to improve mental health care. The Department and OSU Harding are located in a $15 million psychiatric facility that houses clinical inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization, and research programs. The mission of the Department and Ohio State’s Harding Hospital is to: provide the finest psychiatric care; train residents, fellows and medical students in a spectrum of practice settings and patient populations; and conduct research in neuroscience, psychiatry and psychology.

Ongoing Research Programs

• Schizophrenia – Current projects include: 1) identifying genes associated with susceptibility for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, treatment response and outcome, as well as disease phenotypes, such as risk factors and cognitive deficits; and 2) identifying genetic factors determining therapeutic response and side effects to second-generation antipsychotics in patients with acute psychotic episode.
• Anxiety Disorders – Researchers are engaged in various phase III randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group trials evaluating the efficacy and safety of new compounds for treating generalized anxiety disorder.
• Bipolar Disorder – Researchers are engaged in various trials investigating the treatment and adjunctive treatment of acute mania and depression, including continuation treatment for this disorder.
• Major Depression – Researchers are involved in a double-blind, phase III, relapse-prevention trial of a new class of antidepressants.
• Adult Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) – Investigators were engaged in a phase III trial of a psychostimulant that has been approved by the FDA.
• Perinatal Psychoneuroimmunology – Researchers are examining immune and neuroendocrine pathways by which maternal stress and depression may affect perinatal health outcomes, including preterm birth and pre-eclampsia.
• Child and Adolescent Research – Research in the Department’s Division of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry continues to grow and includes the development and testing of psychopharmacologic interventions, nutritional supplementation, psychotherapy and novel treatments such as neurofeedback to manage disorders as diverse as ADHD, autism, anxiety, mood disorders and psychosomatic disorders. Researchers also are investigating the assessment of mood disorders, particularly bipolar spectrum disorders, in school-aged children.
• Molecular Psychopharmacology – Researchers in this area investigate: 1) the role of tyrosine kinase receptors for neurotrophic factors in the neurorestorative and neuroregenerative effect of GM1 ganglioside in animal models of neuroinjury and neurodegeneration; and 2) the role of endogenous opioids, particularly dynorphin and kappa receptors, in nicotine dependence and addiction. Investigators identified a new molecular mechanism involved in regulating the neuroplasticity within the hippocampus.

Research Accomplishments of 2008

• The Department’s 2008 clinical research program participated in 11 studies involving phase II, III and IV trials. The expansion of clinical trials has involved multiple companies in the areas of depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia and ADHD both for adults and children/adolescents. Besides assessing the safety and efficacy of these investigation compounds, investigators evaluated the cognitive benefits of some of these agents; they also evaluated currently available agents for new indications.
• John Campo, MD, is a child-and-adolescent psychiatrist and pediatrician whose research interests include evidence-based treatment for youth with mental disorders, such as the integration of mental health services into primary care settings, suicide prevention, antidepressant safety monitoring and the management of youth with medically unexplained symptoms and emotional disorders. He has received National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) funding to determine the relative efficacy, tolerability and safety of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) citalopram, as well as brief cognitive behavioral psychotherapy in the treatment of youth with functional abdominal pain and clinically significant anxiety. 
• L. Eugene Arnold, MEd, MD, and Michael Aman, PhD, co-direct Ohio State’s Research Unit on Pediatric Psychopharmacology (RUPP), where they conduct treatment research for youth with autism and developmental disabilities. Mary Fristad, PhD, ABPP, a recipient of ongoing funding from the NIMH, has research interests in pediatric bipolar disorder, psychiatric assessment and multiple family psychoeducational groups; she is the first recipient of funding from the Jeffrey Fellowship Endowment, and she served as president of American Psychological Association Division 53, Society of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology. Nicholas Lofthouse, PhD, is co-investigator with Arnold on a study of neurofeedback for ADHD and has contributed to the literature on the management of youth with non-suicidal, self-injurious behaviors.
• L. Eugene Arnold, MEd, MD, and Nicholas Lofthouse, PhD, are running a three-year, NIMH-funded study that examines the efficacy of neurofeedback (NF) in 36 youths of ages 6-12 years with ADHD. Using a parallel-group, double-blind, randomized design, they will compare an active NF group to a sham NF group (n=10) receiving treatment either twice or three times per week. The goal is to explore the feasibility of a double-blind, randomized clinical trial of a new NF technology for this population and resolve questions left by past studies before undertaking a more definitive large-scale study.
• L. Eugene Arnold, MEd, MD, is analyzing final data from a pilot trial of zinc as treatment for ADHD that was funded by the NIMH and completed in December 2007. This double-blind trial randomly assigned 52 children of ages 6-14 to either a zinc glycine supplement or a matched placebo and compared the effects alone (for two months) and then in combination (for five weeks) with amphetamine, a standard medication approved by the FDA for ADHD. Arnold’s ongoing research also includes mecamylamine for autism, cholesterol for autism and digestive enzyme for autism.
• Mary Fristad, PhD, ABPP, is site-principal investigator for a four-site, NIMH-funded study to determine the longitudinal course of manic symptoms and the development of bipolar spectrum disorders in a large cohort of children being treated in outpatient clinics. She also has NIMH funding to write a treatment manual and training materials for a psychosocial treatment proven efficacious in a recently completed NIMH clinical trial. In addition, Fristad has been funded by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science to complete a pilot efficacy-to-effectiveness trial of multi-family psychoeducational psychotherapy, a treatment demonstrated in her previous NIMH clinical trial to be beneficial for children of ages 8-12 with major mood disorders.  
• Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, has expanded her interdisciplinary collaborations on psychological influences on immune function to examine questions such as: the psychological and physiological consequences of chronic stress in older adults; the ability of omega-3 supplementation to alter mood and inflammation; how genetic and environmental influences contribute to depression and immune dysregulation in older adults; the ability of mind-body interventions such as yoga to modulate endocrine and immune responses; and the role that proinflammatory cytokines play in combination with depression among cancer survivors who experience debilitating fatigue. Lisa Christian, PhD, is examining immune and neuroendocrine mediators by which maternal stress and depression may affect perinatal health outcomes, including preterm delivery and pre-eclampsia. This research will emphasize the role of chronic stress in contributing to racial disparities in adverse pregnancy outcomes; studies will include examination of effects of stress on proinflammatory cytokine production, immune control of latent viruses, and physiological reactivity to acute stress during pregnancy.