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 Hospitals 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 treatments and strategies to improve mental-health care. The Department and Ohio State’s Harding Hospital are located in a $15 million psychiatric facility that houses clinical inpatient, outpatient, partial hospitalization and research programs. Their mission 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 a phase III, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallelgroup, 10-week study evaluating the efficacy and safety of a
  compound for treating generalized anxiety disorder.
• Child and adolescent psychiatry – Researchers focus on child and adolescent disorder, including attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder and other
  mood disorders.
• Pharmacogenetics – This program in psychiatric genetics studies the role of opioids and signaling mechanisms involved in the neuroprotective/neurorestorative action of gangliosides.
• Mood disorders – Researchers are investigating aspects of the assessment and  treatment of mood disorders, particularly depression and bipolar spectrum disorders, in school-aged
  children and adults.

Research Accomplishments of 2007

• The Department of Psychiatry developed and staffed a clinical trials office (CTO) to   provide centralized resources for the development, implementation and management of  psychiatric clinical trials. The CTO has 3.5 full-time employees who work with principal investigators  to ensure compliance to protocol-specific procedures. The CTO provides: protocol management, including screening, monitoring treatment administration, and managing  and reporting adverse reactions for patients; data management; preparation of regulatory documents for submission to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) and other agencies; preparation of clinical trials budgets, PA005s, sponsor billing, payment reconciliation and contract negotiations.
• The Department’s 2007 clinical trials program participated in 13 clinical studies involving phase II and III trials. The expansion of clinical trials involves studies of depression,   bipolar disorder, anxiety, schizophrenia and ADHD.
• John Campo, MD, studies pediatric functional abdominal pain, its relationship with anxiety and depression, and its treatment using medication and brief cognitive behavioral
  psychotherapy in traditional medical settings. He also focuses on improving the quality of psychopharmacologic management of common pediatric mental disorders in specialty  and primary-care settings.
• L . Eugene Arnold, MEd, MD, completed a National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded pilot trial of zinc as treatment for ADHD in children ages 6-14. Final data for the study are being analyzed. An interim analysis suggested an effect at school as rated by teachers, but not at home as rated by parents.
• L. Eugene Arnold, MEd, MD, was principal investigator for a pilot trial of a comprehensive motion apparatus to provide vestibular stimulation for patients of ages 6-12 years with
  ADHD; the study was accepted for publication in the Journal of Attention Disorders. In this study, combined vestibular and auditory stimulation of the 8th nerve was compared single-blind to a control treatment of auditory stimulation alone. Significant improvements were observed in both groups, but not a significant difference between the two.
• 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 the treatment manual and training materials for a
  psychosocial treatment proven effective in a recently completed NIMH clinical trial.
• Janice Kiecolt-Glaser, PhD, has expanded her interdisciplinary collaborations on psychological influences on immune function to examine the role that serotonin and cytokine genes may play in interactions with stress and inflammation among older adults – that is, how genes interact with chronic stressors to enhance risk for adverse mental  and physical health changes. Her work is supported by a new grant from the National Institute on Aging. Another of her NIH-funded studies addresses whether a restorative hatha yoga session can produce positive changes in endocrine and immune function
  compared to a metabolically equivalent control condition.