November 26, 2024
Thursday, December 12, 2024 | 4 – 5:30 p.m. ET
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In this presentation Dr. Keshavan will review the current state of the knowledge on cognitive remediation (cognitive training) in psychiatric illnesses, and its neural and behavioral targets, and summarize the factors that appear to relate to a successful response, including learner characteristics that influence clinical outcome.
While much of the early research has been conducted in schizophrenia, cognitive training has more recently been applied to a widening range of neuropsychiatric illnesses, including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, mood disorders, and substance use disorders.
Cognitive training harnesses the inherent neuroplastic capacities of the brain, targeting brain function across psychiatric disorders. Cognitive training offers considerable promise, especially given the limited efficacy of pharmacological interventions in ameliorating cognitive deficits. However, some potential pharmacological options that may be of value in improving cognition in neuropsychiatric disorders will also be briefly discussed.
Dr. Keshavan is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center; Harvard Medical School, a position he assumed in April 2008. He is also Academic Head for the department. Dr. Keshavan received his medical training in Mysore, India (the batch of 1969; graduated at the top of his university in 1975), and his psychiatric training in Bangalore (India), Vienna, London, and Detroit.
Dr. Keshavan is closely involved in research in neurobiology of psychosis, especially as it pertains to first episode psychotic disorders. His research has resulted in around 972 publications to date, including over 800 peer-reviewed papers, 4 books, and 150 other papers/ reviews/ book chapters. His work has been cited 81,627 times, and with a Google Scholar H index of 139, he is among the top 1% of all researchers in his field (per Researchgate). He has received several awards including the Gaskell Gold Medal of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (1985); Nancy Roschke Certificate for Teaching Excellence of the American Psychiatric Association in 1993; Teaching awards at the Departments of Psychiatry in Pittsburgh (1992, 1994, and 2004), Wayne State University (2008) and at Harvard (2011) and the 2019 NAMI National Research award, the 2019 research award by the World congress of Biological Psychiatry and the 2020 Karimnagar Research Award and Gold medal, Indian Psychiatric Society. He is a distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association; a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, Canada; and a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK.
Dr. Keshavan is the Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Psychiatry (Elsevier), a former editor of Schizophrenia Research, and serves on the editorial board for journals such as Early Intervention in Psychiatry, and Biomarkers in Neuropsychiatry. His other interests include the psychotherapeutic insights from the Bhagavad Gita. He has an active clinical practice. He is also an avid sketcher.
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