Faculty focused on schizophrenia research?

[PhishGirl]

Hi everyone! In starting to plan for next year, I was wondering if anyone had any advice on universities that have faculty that are strongly focused on schizophrenia research.

Thanks so much!

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[Kat 22]

I assume you're thinking mainly about American Schools but if you're considering Canadian schools at all, you should consider Dr. Bowie at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario. He takes Clinical students.

 

[AcronymAllergy]

I don't remember the specific university (maybe UMCP?), but I know there's a good program or two in Maryland.

From personal experience, I can recommend Dr. Alex Cohen at LSU.

 

[erg923]

Need to be more specific. Researching what about schizophrenia?

Start with these and then see who they worked with in grad school as well...

Kring-Berkley (recommend personally)
Penn and Fredrickson-UNC-Chapel Hill
Bedwell- UCF
Cohen- LSU
Miller and others-Georgia
Pogue-Geille-Pittsburgh
Blanchard-Maryland
McDonald-Minnesota

 

[AcronymAllergy]

Need to be more specific. Researching what about schizophrenia?

Start with these and then see who they worked with in grad school as well...

Kring-Berkley (recommend personally)
Penn and Fredrickson-UNC-Chapel Hill
Bedwell- UCF
Cohen- LSU
Miller and others-Georgia
Pogue-Geille-Pittsburgh
Blanchard-Maryland
McDonald-Minnesota

That's who I was thinking of in my above post; thanks for demolishing my mental block.

Oh, and excellent point--schizophrenia is a fairly broad topic/area, so narrowing your research interests can definitely help.

 

[psychgirl77]

Also in Canada, Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Heinrichs at York University and Dr. Thornton at Simon Fraser University.

 

[PhishGirl]

Indeed, schizophrenia is a broad topic. I am doing my undergraduate thesis on IOR (an attention phenomenon) and social anhedonia...the idea being that SA is an early behavioral marker for schizophrenia and IOR might be, as well. I think I would like to pursue this line of thinking, looking for the early markers of the illness and perhaps trying to understand the differences between individuals who carry those markers and decompensate into illness and those who do not.

 

[PsychGirl7]

Need to be more specific. Researching what about schizophrenia?

Start with these and then see who they worked with in grad school as well...

Kring-Berkley (recommend personally)
Penn and Fredrickson-UNC-Chapel Hill
Bedwell- UCF
Cohen- LSU
Miller and others-Georgia
Pogue-Geille-Pittsburgh
Blanchard-Maryland
McDonald-Minnesota

Ann Kring is who I was going to recommend too.

When you say Fredrickson, do you mean Barbara Fredrickson or someone else?? (I am not being contentious, I am genuinely curious.)

Just to clarify, Barbara Fredrickson does all of her work on positive psychology. I think she has only published one article on schizophrenia, and it was on how the loving-kindness meditation (an aspect of positive psych) helped negative symptoms. This might not be the best fit if you are looking for someone who's sole focus is schizophrenia (plus, she is in social psychology).

 

[turtlebutt]

UCLA
Maryland
Harvard (2 people have related research)

 

[McClinas]

There is some really interesting research being conducted by Dr. Earleywine out of SUNY-Albany that looks at the link between substance use (particularly marijuana use) and the development of schizophrenia and/or Cluster A "eccentric" personality disorders (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal). He tends to focus more on substance abuse, but I know that this is a major component of his lab. Def check it out if you are interested, I've heard AMAZING things about him as a mentor/advisor.

 

[katciao]

You might try University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

 

[Buzzwordsoldier]

I gather that you mean to seek faculty heavily involved in conducting research vs implementing research to train clinicians, no?

 

[ltj999]

Dr. Lezenweger - Binghamton U

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

There is some really interesting research being conducted by Dr. Earleywine out of SUNY-Albany that looks at the link between substance use (particularly marijuana use) and the development of schizophrenia and/or Cluster A "eccentric" personality disorders (paranoid, schizoid, schizotypal). He tends to focus more on substance abuse, but I know that this is a major component of his lab. Def check it out if you are interested, I've heard AMAZING things about him as a mentor/advisor.

Is he arguing their is a pre-existing condition that would lead to SCZ/related and the people are using/abusing as a coping skill, or that the substance use can some how impact the development of SCZ/related? SCZ isn't my area, but I believe there is some good support for substance use/abuse with people who have SCZ, as for many it is the best way they have learned to cope, though I haven't read anything on substance abuse impacting SCZ. There have been a few studies that looked at LSD, MDMA, and cocaine use as possibly factors in experiencing a psychotic-like episode, though I don't believe there was anything definative.

(I can split this out if people want to talk about this in more depth)

 

[PhishGirl]

I gather that you mean to seek faculty heavily involved in conducting research vs implementing research to train clinicians, no?

Hmm, I'm not sure...I definitely want to find faculty who focus upon research, but I am looking to get my clinical phd...

 

[psychanxiety]

Is he arguing their is a pre-existing condition that would lead to SCZ/related and the people are using/abusing as a coping skill, or that the substance use can some how impact the development of SCZ/related? SCZ isn't my area, but I believe there is some good support for substance use/abuse with people who have SCZ, as for many it is the best way they have learned to cope, though I haven't read anything on substance abuse impacting SCZ. There have been a few studies that looked at LSD, MDMA, and cocaine use as possibly factors in experiencing a psychotic-like episode, though I don't believe there was anything definative.

(I can split this out if people want to talk about this in more depth)

There's been some research on the possibility of early and frequent cannabis use causing schizophrenia, but the field isn't conclusive yet. Here's a review:

Cannabis Use, First-Episode Psychosis, and Schizotypy: A Summary and
Synthesis of Recent Literature
Michael T. Compton, Sandra M. Goulding and Elaine F. Walker

Abstract: Schizophrenia currently is conceptualized as a neurodevelopmental disorder, the expression of which is affected
by both genetic and environmental factors. Schizotypy is a dimensional personality construct that is the substrate of
schizotypal personality disorder (SPD), and its positive, negative, and cognitive features are subclinical manifestations
that mirror the symptoms of schizophrenia. Research indicates that both schizophrenia and schizotypy are linked with
cannabis use. In this overview, recent literature on the following topics is summarized: (1) cannabis use as a potential risk
factor, or component cause, of schizophrenia, (2) prevalence and clinical correlates of cannabis use among individuals in
the early course of schizophrenia, (3) clinical and psychosocial outcomes of schizophrenia that are influenced by cannabis
use, and (4) associations between cannabis use and schizotypy. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Growing evidence points to the complex and informative interconnections between cannabis use, schizotypy, and firstepisode
psychosis.

 

[Therapist4Chnge]

Is he arguing their is a pre-existing condition that would lead to SCZ/related and the people are using/abusing as a coping skill, or that the substance use can some how impact the development of SCZ/related? SCZ isn't my area, but I believe there is some good support for substance use/abuse with people who have SCZ, as for many it is the best way they have learned to cope, though I haven't read anything on substance abuse impacting SCZ. There have been a few studies that looked at LSD, MDMA, and cocaine use as possibly factors in experiencing a psychotic-like episode, though I don't believe there was anything definative.

(I can split this out if people want to talk about this in more depth)

HERE

 

[sparrow05]

Univ of Maryland College Part has an SZ research program in the clinical PhD
UCSD/SDSU has a ton of professors doing SZ research, Kristin Cadenhead is working on some negative symptomatology angles
Temple - Lauren Ellmen
Emory - Elaine Walker
Vanderbilt - Sohee Park, but she does more neurological bases of psychopathology
UNC Greensboro - Thomas Kwapil
UCLA - Tyrone Cannon
Umass Boston - Paul Nestor

I hope that helps.

 

[PhishGirl]

Univ of Maryland College Part has an SZ research program in the clinical PhD
UCSD/SDSU has a ton of professors doing SZ research, Kristin Cadenhead is working on some negative symptomatology angles
Temple - Lauren Ellmen
Emory - Elaine Walker
Vanderbilt - Sohee Park, but she does more neurological bases of psychopathology
UNC Greensboro - Thomas Kwapil
UCLA - Tyrone Cannon
Umass Boston - Paul Nestor

I hope that helps.

It does help, very much. Funny enough, one of the people you mentioned is my mentor for my undergrad thesis. haha.

Thanks so much to everyone who offered up some information. It is greatly appreciated.