Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2012
Mentor: Carol S. North, MD, MPE
Department: Psychiatry
Room number: 6363 Forest Park Rd., Suite 651 (Bass Bldg.)
Mail Code: 8828
Phone number: 213-648-5375
E-mail: Carol.North@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: True and False Memories in PTSD Related to Disaster, from the study “9/11: Persistent Mental Health Impact on WTC Survivors”
Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): STU 092010-006
Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable): N/A
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) psychiatric epidemiology
Brief Description of Project: A sample of 379 survivors of the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center was assessed approximately three years later for full diagnosis using the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule and true and false memories using the Roediger paradigm. Analysis of the database from this study will be conducted using SAS to examine how the development of PTSD relates to personal tendencies to have true and false memories. The mentor will work closely with the student to guide the analysis, teach the student sufficient SAS programming skills to conduct the analysis, guide the student’s review of relevant published literature on the topic, and coauthor a manuscript from this work to be submitted for publication in the peer-reviewed literature.
Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students: There are too many to count among a dozen or more medical students, over a period of about 20 years. These publications, abstracts, and posters have been in the areas of disaster psychiatry, psychosocial problems of the homeless population, somatization disorder, psychiatric aspects of gastrointestinal disease, electroconvulsive therapy, non-psychotic formal thought disorder, and various other topics in psychiatry.