Top Psychiatry Researchers Honoured With International Career Development Award

ATLANTA, Georgia, May 24 /PRNewswire/ --

- American Psychiatric Association and AstraZeneca Reward '2004 Young Minds in Psychiatry' Winners

The American Psychiatric Association (APA) and AstraZeneca today announced the winners of their prestigious 'Young Minds in Psychiatry' awards programme which aims to recognise excellence and support development amongst young leaders in the field of psychiatry research from around the world. The award presentations took place at the APA's 158th Annual Meeting during the Early Research Career Breakfast meeting, where it was also announced that submissions are now being welcomed for the 2005 awards programme.

The 2004 Awards Programme attracted over 35 submissions from around the world and these were reviewed by a panel of acclaimed psychiatry experts. "The extremely high quality of these entrants is a very positive indicator for the future of mental health research around the world," commented Dr. Darrel A. Regier, Executive Director of the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education. "The diversity and insightfulness of the entries made the judging process a particularly difficult task." Submissions were reviewed based on the strength of proposal, the future potential of the candidates, and their career advancement prospects.

Five winners were selected across two research categories; schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. A winner from both the US and the international community were selected in each category for the importance and value of their research proposal, each winning a career development award of US$45,000. This year, due to the outstanding level of excellence amongst the entrants, two applicants share the International Bipolar Award.

The 2004 Young Minds in Psychiatry Awards were won by Raymond Y. Cho, USA (schizophrenia), Stefan Leucht, Germany (schizophrenia), Alexander B. Niculescu III, USA (bipolar disorder), Jose M. Goikolea, Spain (bipolar disorder), and Etheldreda Nakimuli-Mpungu, Uganda (bipolar disorder).

Dr. Nakimuli-Mpungu's award will enable her to review bipolar disorder amongst HIV / AIDS patients in Uganda, an important area where little research exists to date. HIV positive patients who also have bipolar disorder but are untreated, may not take their prescribed HIV medication which can cause resistance to the HIV drugs and lead to further complications. Dr. Nakimuli-Mpungu plans to develop a PhD proposal from this study.

Dr. Leucht will review duration of response of antipsychotics in schizophrenia patients, a poorly understood area despite 50 years of effective antipsychotic drug development. Dr. Leuchts' long-term goal is to run his own research institute with a focus on evidence-based medicine in mental health.

Dr. Niculescu's study has the goal of developing and applying a novel approach to better understand the phenotypic structure of psychotic disorders, called PhenoChipping. Commenting on winning the award, Dr. Niculescu noted that "winning the Young Minds in Psychiatry Award provides recognition, impetus and seed money for the more ambitious aspects of my work." His ultimate career goals as an academic psychiatrist and translational researcher are to help understand how the brain works, by integrating genetics with neurobiology, and at a clinical level, to help foster the era of personalised medicine in psychiatry.

Dr. Cho will be investigating how impaired context processing impacts the life of those people living with schizophrenia, which could ultimately aid in the development of early prognostic indicators as well as help improve cognition in this debilitating disorder.

Dr. Goikolea will be investigating the role that fronto-temporal white matter plays in patients with bipolar disorder, and this project will form the basis of his doctoral thesis. "This award will allow me to devote a large proportion of my work to creating a whole research line on neuroimaging in bipolar disorder," commented Dr. Goikolea.

The 2005 `Young Minds in Psychiatry Awards Programme' is also launched today at the APA meeting. Researchers who are within 5 years of completing a psychiatric residency can apply for the award by submitting a proposal of scientific merit that demonstrates academic promise and explaining how winning an award will further their career. "We encourage applications across a broad range of activities, and are extremely proud to be a part of this award programme supporting rising stars in the field of psychiatry. It is important for us to nurture and support those at the front-line of future research and advance in this medical field" comments Jamie Mullen, AstraZeneca.

Application forms can be found via: http://youngminds.astrazeneca.com/

Notes to Editors:

About Young Minds in Psychiatry International Awards Programme

Young Minds in Psychiatry is a joint career development initiative between AstraZeneca and the American Psychiatric Association which has been running since 2002. Over this time 13 young researchers have benefited from winning the research grants. The following distinguished, independent Steering Committee is responsible for reviewing proposals and advising on those to be funded:

United States Review Committee:

Nancy C. Andreasen, M.D. Jack D. Burke, M.D. Robert N. Golden, University of Iowa Department of Psychiatry M.D. Hospitals & Clinics Cambridge Hospital University of North Psychiatry Carolina at Chapel Hill Stephen R. Marder, M.D. Jerrold F. Rosenbaum, M.D. Alan F. Schatzberg, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Massachusetts General M.D. Institute Hospital Stanford University School of Medicine

International Review Committee:

Gerhard Heinze, M.D. Florian Holsboer, Dilip V. Jeste, M.d. Instituto Nacional de M.D. University of Psiquiatria Ramó de la Max Planck Institute California-San Diego Fuente of Psychiatry Valery N. Krasnov, M.D. Robin Murray, M.D., Alan F. Schatzburg, Moscow Research Institute S.Sc., F.R.C.P., M.d. of Psychiatry F.R.C. Psych Stanford University London & Maudsley School of Medicine Hospital

About APA

The American Psychiatric Association is a national medical specialty society, founded in 1844, whose nearly 36,000 physician members specialise in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses including substance use disorders. For more information, visit the APA Web site at www.psych.org.

About AstraZeneca

AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacture and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and the supply of healthcare services. It is one of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies with healthcare sales of over US$21.4 billion and leading positions in sales of gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, respiratory, oncology and neuroscience products. AstraZeneca is listed in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (Global) as well as the FTSE4Good Index.

In Neuroscience, AstraZeneca is dedicated to providing medicines that have the potential to change patients' lives. The company already markets several products including quetiapine, one of the fastest growing global antipsychotics with proven efficacy and a very favourable side effect profile; and zolmitriptan, a reliable migraine therapy and a leader within the triptan market. The Neuroscience pipeline includes leading approaches for the treatment of depression and anxiety, overactive bladder, dementia, stroke, pain control and anaesthesia.