The proposed application will provide the candidate with the needed expertise to establish an independent research career focusing on the investigation of the neurobiology suicide attempt in children and adolescents. The applicant is a child and adolescent psychiatrist who proposes to obtain multidisciplinary training from mentors in suicidology and functional neuroimaging, with a panel of experts in childhood neurobiology, child development, neuroimaging, and data analysis. We propose to use established methods in functional neuroimaging and neuroscience to characterize the neurobiology underlying early onset suicide attempt. We will assess these adolescents, and age-matched psychiatric controls and healthy controls with well-established neurocognitive tasks. We hypothesize that history of suicide attempt in adolescents will be associated with differences in patterns of neural activity compared with both psychiatric and healthy controls. The primary objective of this research project is to examine the neural circuitry underlying traitdependent abnormalities in cognitive and emotion processing in adolescents with depression with and without history of suicide attempt, by focusing on the following areas: emotional processing, cognitive control, and risky decision-making, that have been demonstrated to recruit ventral and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices and amygdala and ventral striatum, dorsal prefrontal cortical regions, and ventromedial and dorsomedial prefrontal cortices, respectively. Our study of the neural circuitry of adolescent suicide attempt is important in that it will help to more precisely define: 1) cognitive and affective processing abnormalities associated with suicidal behavior;2) functional neurocircuitry related to these neurocognitive abnormalities;and, in turn, 3) the relationship between these abnormalities and onset and history of suicidal behavior. Increased understanding of these neural markers will have a significant impact upon the future targeting of treatment and prevention efforts to improve the long-term outcome of individuals with suicidal behavior. This is the first study of its kind in a pediatric population. The functional neuroimaging instruction, didactics, coursework, and clinical research training, sponsored by Mary Phillips, M.D., M.D. (Cantab), Director of the Functional Neuroimaging Program, and David Brent, M.D., Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies, will prepare the candidate to perform multidisciplinary cognitive neuroscience research in adolescent suicide prevention.

Public Health Relevance

Identification of markers for suicide risk and increased understanding of the cognitive neuroscience of suicide attempt may have a significant impact upon the future design and monitoring of treatment and prevention efforts to prevent death and improve the long-term outcome of individuals with suicidal behavior. This is the first study of its kind in adolescents.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23)
Project #
5K23MH082884-03
Application #
8009419
Study Section
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section (CPDD)
Program Officer
Churchill, James D
Project Start
2009-02-13
Project End
2013-12-31
Budget Start
2011-01-01
Budget End
2011-12-31
Support Year
3
Fiscal Year
2011
Total Cost
$157,168
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Pittsburgh
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
004514360
City
Pittsburgh
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
15213
Kerestes, Rebecca; Segreti, Anna Maria; Pan, Lisa A et al. (2016) Altered neural function to happy faces in adolescents with and at risk for depression. J Affect Disord 192:143-52
Pan, Lisa A; Ramos, Lisa; Segreti, AnnaMaria et al. (2015) Right superior temporal gyrus volume in adolescents with a history of suicide attempt. Br J Psychiatry 206:339-40
Martin, Petra C; Zimmer, Thomas J; Pan, Lisa A (2015) Magnetic resonance imaging markers of suicide attempt and suicide risk in adolescents. CNS Spectr 20:355-8
Pan, Lisa A; Phillips, Mary L (2014) Toward identification of neural markers of suicide risk in adolescents. Neuropsychopharmacology 39:236-7
Pan, Lisa; Vockley, Jerry (2013) Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Inborn Errors of Metabolism: Incorporation of Genomic and Metabolomic Analysis into Therapeutics and Prevention. Curr Genet Med Rep 1:65-70
Diler, Rasim Somer; Segreti, Anna Maria; Ladouceur, Cecile D et al. (2013) Neural correlates of treatment in adolescents with bipolar depression during response inhibition. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol 23:214-21
Pan, L A; Hassel, S; Segreti, A M et al. (2013) Differential patterns of activity and functional connectivity in emotion processing neural circuitry to angry and happy faces in adolescents with and without suicide attempt. Psychol Med 43:2129-42
Diler, Rasim Somer; Ladouceur, Cecile D; Segreti, Annamaria et al. (2013) Neural correlates of treatment response in depressed bipolar adolescents during emotion processing. Brain Imaging Behav 7:227-35
Pan, Lisa; Segreti, Annamaria; Almeida, Jorge et al. (2013) Preserved hippocampal function during learning in the context of risk in adolescent suicide attempt. Psychiatry Res 211:112-8
Pan, Lisa A; Batezati-Alves, Silvia C; Almeida, Jorge R C et al. (2011) Dissociable patterns of neural activity during response inhibition in depressed adolescents with and without suicidal behavior. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 50:602-611.e3

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