Request for Funding

Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2002

Mentor: E. Sherwood Brown, Ph.D., M.D.
Department: Psychiatry
Room number:NC 5.908
Mail Code: 9070
Phone number:214-648-4976
E-mail: sherwood.brown@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: 1) Hippocampal Functioning During Corticosteroid Therapy
2) Antidepressant Therapy in Depressed Asthma Patients

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): 1) IRB file #1201-607
2) IRB file # 0300-121

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): NA

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects)

Patient-based

Brief Description of Project:

1) This NIH-funded project uses MRI, MRS, fMRI and neurocognitive testing to examine hippocampal structure and functioning in patients on prednisone therapy for asthma or arthritis. We hypothesize that reversible hippocampal damage and memory loss will be found. Thus, this project also examines whether an antiseizure medication (lamotrigine) which blocks glutamate release will reverse cognitive dysfunction and even structural brain changes in these patients.
2) Our data suggest that depression is very common in people with asthma and associated with poor physical as well as mental functioning. This NIH-funded project examines whether treatment with an antidepressant (citalopram) is associated with improvement in asthma symptoms in depressed asthma patients.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

I have supervised three medical students in the past (1998 (UT Houston student), 1999, 2001 (both UT Southwestern students)) on research projects which has resulted in four peer-reviewed publications and two abstracts to date (see below, student's name with asterisk).
1. Bogan AM*, Brown ES, Suppes T: Efficacy of divalproex therapy in schizoaffective disorder. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 20:520-522 (2000).
2. Bogan AM*, Shellhorn E, Brown ES, McDanald C, Suppes T: Switching outpatients between atypical antipsychotics Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry 24:354-355 (2000).
3. Zielinski TA, Brown ES, Nejtek VA, Moore J*, Rush, AJ: Depression in asthma: Prevalence and clinical implications. Primary Care Companion to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. 2:153-158 (2000).
4. Nejtek VA, Brown ES, Khan DA. Moore J*, Van Wagner J, Perantie DC: Prevalence of mood disorders and relationship to asthma severity in patients at an inner-city asthma clinic. Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology 87:129-133 (2001).
5. Brown ES, Nejtek VA, Khan DA, Moore J*, Thomas NR, Mahadi S: Depression in outpatients with asthma. American College of Neuropsychopharmacology 38th Annual Meeting, Acapulco, Mexico, December 12-16, 1999.
6. Brown ES, Nejtek VA, Khan DA, Moore J*, Thomas NR, Mahadi S: Depression in asthma patients: Preliminary findings. Society of Biological Psychiatry Annual Meeting, 47, Chicago Illinois May 11-13, 2000, Biological Psychiatry 47:8S (2000).

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