• Professor, Psychiatry

Csernansky

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Analyzing brain images Researchers study siblings of schizophrenia patients March 19, 2007 -- Investigators at the Silvio Conte Center for the Neuroscience of Mental Disorders at the School of Medicine are recruiting schizophrenia patients and their siblings for a study to determine whether subtle differences in brain structure can predict who is at risk for developing the illness.

The line between normal and mentally ill Science tries to find secrets of teen brains Dec. 13, 2005 -- Karen Elshout, Post-Dispatch Robin Harris holds a blanket that belonged to her daughter, Kaitlyn, a teen whose depression led her to kill herself. The teenage brain may hold secrets which could help unlock some of the mysteries of mental illness. Adolescent brains undergo serious transitions and can become very volatile, making it sometimes difficult to distinguish between normal teenage behavior and serious mental illness. Some scientists believe several severe mental illnesses may even have roots in the developing teen brain.

Need cues, memory aids Memory study shows brain function in schizophrenia can improve with support July 13, 2005 -- Deanna Barch (right) co-authored a memory study that used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine to monitor brain activity of people with schizophrenia. Download When encouraged to use memorization strategies commonly employed by healthy individuals, people with schizophrenia can be helped to remember information just as well as their healthy counterparts, a process that in itself seems to spur a normalization of memory-related activities in the brains of people with schizophrenia, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Need cues, memory aids Memory study shows brain function in schizophrenia can improve with support, holds promise for cognitive rehabilitation July 11, 2005 -- Deanna Barch (right), co-author of a memory study that used a functional magnetic resonance imaging machine (shown in the background) to monitor the brain activity of people with schizophrenia. Download When encouraged to use memorization strategies commonly employed by healthy individuals, people with schizophrenia can be helped to remember information just as well as their healthy counterparts, a process that in itself seems to spur a normalization of memory-related activities in the brains of people with schizophrenia, suggests new research from Washington University in St. Louis.

Imaging Alzheimer's disease MRI scans distinguish brain changes in Alzheimer's patients from changes in normal aging Oct. 2, 2003 -- At the time of the first MRI scans, the turquoise color shows areas of the hippocampus in patients with mild Alzheimer's disease that are shaped differently than in healthy older people. Two years later, even more changes have occurred, represented by the purple color. Even when people have no symptoms, their brains already may be dotted with the plaques and tangles that characterize Alzheimer's disease. As treatments to halt the progress of Alzheimer's disease appear on the horizon, scientists are looking for new ways to identify Alzheimer's-associated changes in the brain before cognitive decline begins. By examining brain images, researchers, led by John G. Csernansky, M.D., the Gregory B. Couch Professor of Psychiatry, and Lei Wang, Ph.D., research associate in psychiatry, both at Washington University's Silvio Conte Center for Neuroscience Research, found that the volume and shape of certain brain structures change in different patterns during Alzheimer's disease than in healthy aging. They believe that someday using these imaging techniques may allow for earlier diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, preferably before the most devastating symptoms appear.

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In other research, Csernansky studies the effectiveness of treatments for mental illness. He led a national study published in The New England Journal of Medicine that found the drug risperidone lowers the risk of relapse in patients with schizophrenia by nearly half. Just under one percent of the general population suffers from schizophrenia. The economic burden of the disease was estimated at $33 billion per year in the early 1990s. Much of that cost can be attributed to the consequences of repeated psychotic relapses. Currently, Csernansky is working on other approaches -- including early diagnosis and intervention -- to decrease the chronic nature and the disability associated with schizophrenia and other neuropsychiatric diseases.