Dennis S. Charney | |
---|---|
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | Penn State, Yale School of Medicine |
Known for | Ketamine treatment for depression |
Spouse | Andrea Charney |
Children | 5 |
Awards | Election to National Academy of Medicine |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Biological psychiatry, research, author |
Institutions | Dean, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai |
Website | https://icahn.mssm.edu/profiles/dennis-s-charney |
Dennis S. Charney is an American biological psychiatrist and researcher, with expertise in the neurobiology and treatment of mood and anxiety disorders. [1] He is the author of Neurobiology of Mental Illness, The Physician's Guide to Depression and Bipolar Disorders and Molecular Biology for the Clinician, as well as the author of over 600 original papers and chapters. In 2022, he was listed #52 on Research.com's "Top Medicine Scientists in the United States," with an h-index of 194 with 146,109 citations across 651 publications. [2] Charney is known for demonstrating that ketamine is effective for treating depression. Ketamine's use as a rapidly-acting anti-depressant is recognized as a breakthrough treatment in mental illness. [3] [4]
He is a professor of psychiatry, professor of neuroscience and professor of pharmacology and systems therapeutics at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City.
In 2007, he became the Dean of the School and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs of what was then known as the Mount Sinai Medical Center. In 2013, he was named President of Academic Affairs for the Mount Sinai Health System and as of 2022 still holds these roles.
With Steven Southwick, MD, Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University, Charney authored Resilience: The Science of Mastering Life's Greatest Challenges, which reflects on the science of resilience and identifies ten factors that contribute to highly reliant people. [5] With Eric J. Nestler, MD, he is author of Charney & Nestler's Neurobiology of Mental Illness, which went into its fifth edition in 2018. [6]
Charney graduated from medical school at Penn State in 1977 and completed his residency in Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. A fellowship in Biological Psychiatry was completed at the Connecticut Medical Health Center.
Charney became the dean of research at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2004, later becoming the dean for academic and scientific affairs, then succeeding Kenneth L. Davis as dean of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in 2007. [7] He was elected to the Institute of Medicine in 2000. [8]
Charney led the Mood and Anxiety Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health and earlier was on the faculty in the department of psychiatry at Yale Medical School. [3]
According to published works, Charney's research is centered around various fields such as psychiatry, anesthesia, clinical psychology, and major depressive disorder. In recognition of his significant contributions to new treatments for mood and anxiety disorders, including the use of ketamine for resistant depression, Charney received the Donald Klein Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Society for Clinical Pathology in 2023. [9]
Neuron published that Charney's neurobiological insights into ketamine are a novel approach to the underlying operation of mechanism-of-action for rapid-acting antidepressant efficacy and mood disorders [10] and is the first model of a rapid-acting antidepressant with efficacy for treatment-resistant symptoms of mood disorders. His intranasal ketamine treatment was approved by the FDA in 2019 and now produced under the brand name Spravato. [11] Scientific American published in 2018 that the development is the first new form of antidepressant since the 1950s. [12]
General psychiatry research includes work on anxiety, mood and psychopathology linked to work in injury prevention, [13] thereby connecting myriad disciplines of study. Research into depression shows elements of internal medicine and management. Clinical psychology includes psychological intervention and resilience. Anesthesia research shows themes of randomized controlled trials and Esketamine. [14] Traumatic stress is part of his psychology study and is frequently connected to suicide prevention, bridging the gap between various science disciplines and establishing new relationships. Other areas of study are bipolar disorder, endocrinology and oncology. The endocrinology research is multidisciplinary, relying on the orbitofrontal cortex and serotonin. [2] [15]
Charney owns patents in dopamine and noradrenergic reuptake inhibitors in the treatment of schizophrenia [16] and in intranasal administration of ketamine to treat depression. [17] In total, as of 2022, he holds five issued patents and six pending. [18]
Partial list:
Charney is the father of five children and grandfather of eight. On the morning of August 29, 2016, Charney was shot and wounded by Hengjun Chao, as Charney left Lange's Deli in Charney's hometown of Chappaqua, New York. Chao was a former Mount Sinai medical researcher who had been fired by Charney in 2010 for research fraud. [37] [38] [39] Chao's trial began on June 5, 2017, and eight days later Chao was convicted of attempted second-degree murder and two other charges in Westchester County Court in White Plains. He was sentenced to 28 years in prison. [40] [41] [42] [43] [44] These personal events contributed first-hand to his study of resilience and are discussed in this his book "Resilience". [5] [45]
In April 2019, a lawsuit was filed against Dr. Charney, several other defendants, and the Mount Sinai Health System for sex and age discrimination at the Arnhold Institute for Global Health at the Icahn School of Medicine. The suit was filed by eight current and former employees, all but one women. [46]
He has been named among the top 3 most highly cited authors of psychiatric research in the decade ending in 2000 by the Institute for Scientific Information. [47] He has been on the editorial board of 15 journals, including Biological Psychiatry, Journal of Anxiety Disorders , Journal of Affective Disorders , Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavia, Journal of Psychopharmacology , Human Psychopharmacology, and Psychopharmacology Bulletin.
Charney's most cited publications are: [48]
Other notable articles:
Major depressive disorder (MDD), also known as clinical depression, is a mental disorder characterized by at least two weeks of pervasive low mood, low self-esteem, and loss of interest or pleasure in normally enjoyable activities. Introduced by a group of US clinicians in the mid-1970s, the term was adopted by the American Psychiatric Association for this symptom cluster under mood disorders in the 1980 version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), and has become widely used since.
Ketamine is a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a treatment for depression and pain management. Ketamine is a novel compound that was derived from phencyclidine in 1962 in pursuit of a safer anesthetic with fewer hallucinogenic effects.
Imipramine, sold under the brand name Tofranil, among others, is a tricyclic antidepressant (TCA) mainly used in the treatment of depression. It is also effective in treating anxiety and panic disorder. Imipramine is taken by mouth.
Biological psychiatry or biopsychiatry is an approach to psychiatry that aims to understand mental disorder in terms of the biological function of the nervous system. It is interdisciplinary in its approach and draws on sciences such as neuroscience, psychopharmacology, biochemistry, genetics, epigenetics and physiology to investigate the biological bases of behavior and psychopathology. Biopsychiatry is the branch of medicine which deals with the study of the biological function of the nervous system in mental disorders.
Treatment-resistant depression is a term used in psychiatry to describe people with major depressive disorder (MDD) who do not respond adequately to a course of appropriate antidepressant medication within a certain time. Definitions of treatment-resistant depression vary, and they do not include a resistance to psychological therapies. Inadequate response has most commonly been defined as less than 50% reduction in depressive symptoms following treatment with at least one antidepressant medication, although definitions vary widely. Some other factors that may contribute to inadequate treatment are: a history of repeated or severe adverse childhood experiences, early discontinuation of treatment, insufficient dosage of medication, patient noncompliance, misdiagnosis, cognitive impairment, low income and other socio-economic variables, and concurrent medical conditions, including comorbid psychiatric disorders. Cases of treatment-resistant depression may also be referred to by which medications people with treatment-resistant depression are resistant to. In treatment-resistant depression adding further treatments such as psychotherapy, lithium, or aripiprazole is weakly supported as of 2019.
Cycloserine, sold under the brand name Seromycin, is a GABA transaminase inhibitor and an antibiotic, used to treat tuberculosis. Specifically it is used, along with other antituberculosis medications, for active drug resistant tuberculosis. It is given by mouth.
The emphasis of the treatment of bipolar disorder is on effective management of the long-term course of the illness, which can involve treatment of emergent symptoms. Treatment methods include pharmacological and psychological techniques.
Helen S. Mayberg was born in 1956 in California. She is an American neurologist. Mayberg is known in particular for her work delineating abnormal brain function in patients with major depression using functional neuroimaging. This work led to the first pilot study of deep brain stimulation (DBS), a reversible method of selective modulation of a specific brain circuit, for patients with treatment-resistant depression. As of August 2019, she has published 211 original peer-reviewed articles, 31 books and book chapters, and acted as principal investigator on 24 research grants. Mayberg is coinventor with Andres Lozano of “Method for Treating Depression Mood Disorders and Anxiety Disorders using Neuromodulation,” US patent 2005/0033379A1. St. Jude Medical Neuromodulation licensed her intellectual property to develop Subcallosal Cingulate Deep Brain Stimulation for Treatment-Resistant Unipolar and Bipolar Depression for the treatment of severe depression. As of 2018, Mayberg holds positions as Professor of Neurology and Neurosurgery and Professor, Psychiatry and Neuroscience, both at Mount Sinai Medical School, and Professor of Psychiatry, Emory University; Emory University Hospital. Since 2018, she has served as Director, Nash Family Center for Advanced Circuit Therapeutics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.
GABA gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) is a key chemical messenger or a neurotransmitter in the central nervous system, that significantly inhibits neuronal transmission. GABA calms the brain and controls several physiological processes, such as stress, anxiety, and sleep. GABAA receptors are a class of ionotropic receptors that are triggered by GABA. They are made up of five subunits that are assembled in various configurations to create distinct receptor subtypes. The direct influx of chloride ions causes rapid inhibitory responses. GABAB receptors are another type of metabotropic receptor that modifies intracellular signaling pathways to provide slower, sustained inhibitory responses. At synapses, GABAA receptors facilitate rapid inhibitory neurotransmission, whereas GABAB receptor which comprise GABA B1 and GABA B2 subunits—control neurotransmitter release and cellular excitability over a longer period of time. As these. These unique qualities help explain the various ways that GABAergic neurotransmission controls brain communication and neuronal function.
Esketamine, also known as (S)-ketamine or S(+)-ketamine, is the S(+) enantiomer of ketamine. It is a dissociative hallucinogen drug used as a general anesthetic and as an antidepressant for treatment of depression. It is sold under the brand names Spravato, Ketanest, among others. Esketamine is the active enantiomer of ketamine in terms of NMDA receptor antagonism and is more potent than racemic ketamine.
Major depressive disorder, often simply referred to as depression, is a mental disorder characterized by prolonged unhappiness or irritability. It is accompanied by a constellation of somatic and cognitive signs and symptoms such as fatigue, apathy, sleep problems, loss of appetite, loss of engagement, low self-regard/worthlessness, difficulty concentrating or indecisiveness, or recurrent thoughts of death or suicide.
Eric J. Nestler is the Nash Family Professor of Neuroscience, Director of the Friedman Brain Institute, and Dean for Academic Affairs at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai and Chief Scientific Officer of the Mount Sinai Health System. His research is focused on a molecular approach to drug addiction and depression.
Arketamine (developmental code names PCN-101, HR-071603), also known as (R)-ketamine or (R)-(−)-ketamine, is the (R)-(−) enantiomer of ketamine. Similarly to racemic ketamine and esketamine, the S(+) enantiomer of ketamine, arketamine is biologically active; however, it is less potent as an NMDA receptor antagonist and anesthetic and thus has never been approved or marketed for clinical use as an enantiopure drug. Arketamine is currently in clinical development as a novel antidepressant.
Hydroxynorketamine (HNK), or 6-hydroxynorketamine, is a minor metabolite of the anesthetic, dissociative, and antidepressant drug ketamine. It is formed by hydroxylation of the intermediate norketamine, another metabolite of ketamine. As of late 2019, (2R,6R)-HNK is in clinical trials for the treatment of depression.
Joseph Zohar is the director of Psychiatry and the Anxiety and Obsessive Compulsive Clinic at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel HaShomer and professor of psychiatry at Tel Aviv University, Israel. He is the founder of the World Council on Anxiety as well as the Israeli Consortium on PTSD. He currently leads the chief installation of the Israeli Defense Force for the treatment of PTSD. He is a member of the executive committee of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology, of which he is a former president, and chairman of the Expert Platform on Mental Health.
Lisa M. Monteggia is an American neuroscientist who is a Professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Psychiatry & Psychology as well as the Barlow Family Director of the Vanderbilt Brain Institute at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Monteggia probes the molecular mechanisms underlying psychiatric disorders and has made critical discoveries about the role of the neurotrophins in antidepressant efficacy, the antidepressant mechanisms of Ketamine, as well as the epigenetic regulation of synaptic transmission by MeCP2.
Carolyn I. Rodriguez is a Puerto Rican psychiatrist, neuroscientist, and clinical researcher developing treatments for obsessive compulsive disorder as well as mapping circuit dysfunction in the human brain. Rodriguez holds appointments in both clinical and academic departments at Stanford University. Rodriguez is a Clinical Lab Director at the Stanford Center for Cognitive and Neurobiological Imaging, an associate professor and Associate Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and a Director of several specialized translational research programs.
Gabriella Gobbi is an Italo-Canadian psychiatrist and neuroscientist whose research explores novel treatments for mental health disorders. Gobbi is a professor at McGill University's Department of Psychiatry and a Canada Research Chair in Therapeutics for Mental Health.
Ketamine-assisted psychotherapy(KAP) is the use of prescribed doses of ketamine, the drug, as an adjunct to psychotherapy sessions. KAP shows significant potential in treating mental disorders such as treatment-resistant depression (TRD), anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorders (OCD), post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD), and other conditions. It can also be used for those experiencing substance abuse and physical pain. While it is primarily used as a veterinary anaesthetic, ketamine has also been found to have rapid analgesic and hallucinogenic effects, which has sparked interest in its use as an antidepressant. Despite initial trials of its use in the treatment of mental disorders focussing primarily on its antidepressant effects, newer studies are attempting to harness its psychedelic effects to bring about altered states of consciousness, which will augment the adjunct psychotherapy. Ketamine's neuroplasticity-promoting effects strengthen the cognitive restructuring that takes place through traditional psychotherapy, thereby leading to long-lasting behavioural change. KAP offers promising directions for research on new antidepressant alternatives, but is still not sufficiently defined or evaluated as a treatment combination.