NYPSI: WORKS IN PROGRESS SEMINAR On the Origins of Psychiatric Illness: Schizophrenia as an Example with René S. Kahn, M.D., Ph.D. Soul Shadow series. Surreal portrait of female face fused with colored fractal nebula texture on the subject of dreams_ nightmares_ imagination_ mental health_ creativity and human mind
Wed, January 9, 2019, 8 – 10 pm New York Psychoanalytic Society & Institute
247 East 82nd Street, NYC (btwn 2nd and 3rd Aves) $20 – General Admission
$15 – Student Admission No charge for NYPSI members/students Register HERE, visit nypsi.org or call 212.879.6900
Schizophrenia is currently classified as a psychotic disorder. This paper will attempt to show that this emphasis on psychosis is a conceptual fallacy that has greatly contributed to the lack of progress in our understanding of this illness and hence has hampered the development of adequate treatments. Not only have cognitive and intellectual underperformance consistently been shown to be risk factors for schizophrenia, several studies find that a decline in cognitive functioning precedes the onset of psychosis by almost a decade. Although the question of whether cognitive function continues to decline after psychosis onset is still debated, it is clear that cognitive function in schizophrenia is related to outcome and little influenced by antipsychotic treatment. Thus, our focus on defining (and preventing) the disorder on the basis of psychotic symptoms may be too narrow. Not only should cognition be recognized as the core component of the disorder, our diagnostic efforts should emphasize the changes in cognitive function that occur earlier in development. Putting the focus back on cognition may facilitate finding treatments for the illness before psychosis ever emerges.
No CME or CE credits offered.
Dr. René Kahn is the Esther and Joseph Klingenstein Professor and System Chair of Psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. After completing Medical School in the Netherlands (1979) and having actively served in the 42 Armd. Brigade of the Royal Army of the Netherlands as a 1st Lt (he retired a Lt. Col in the Army Reserve), he was trained as a psychiatrist and neurologist in Utrecht and Amsterdam, respectively. He then moved to New York City (1985), where he did a research fellowship in biological psychiatry at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. He subsequently completed his psychiatry residencies at Mount Sinai Hospital and then worked as Chief of the psychiatry research unit at the Bronx VA. In 1993 he moved back to Utrecht to become to Chair of Psychiatry at the University hospital, going on to lead the Brain Center Rudolf Magnus, which combines research in basic neuroscience, psychiatry and neurology. He remained connected to Mount Sinai School of Medicine as an Adjunct Associate professor for several years.
One of his most important contributions to science has been to help provide the scientific foundation of the century-old postulate that schizophrenia debuts with cognitive dysfunction – preceding the onset of the first psychosis by more than a decade. Moreover, he and his group have shown that brain changes in schizophrenia are progressive over time; and that these changes are clinically relevant, related as they are to outcome and to loss of cognitive function during the course of the illness. Finally, his research has shown that brain volume is one of the most heritable characteristics of man, paving the way to link brain volumes in health and disease to genetic variation. During his time in Europe he initiated several large treatment trials in schizophrenia in order to improve the outcome of patients with schizophrenia. He is also involved in many other collaborative studies, examining both genetic and neuroimaging parameters. His work has been funded by various sources such as the European Union, the Dutch Government, NIMH and the Stanley Foundation.
Dr. Kahn has published over 800 research papers and in 2015 and 2016 was named Thomson Reuters’ highly cited researcher, representing ‘some of the world’s most influential scientific minds’. He has served on neuroscience grant review boards in the Netherlands as well as those of the United Kingdom and Germany. He received several honors, such as a Fulbright Scholarship, membership of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the ECNP Neuropsychopharmacology Award, an honorary doctorate at Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary and the lifetime achievement award of the Netherlands Psychiatric Association. He is Honorary Lifetime Professor at Jilin University in Changchun, China. He was Treasurer and Vice-President of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology and is currently past-President of The Schizophrenia International Research Society. He is a fellow of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.
Francis Baudry, M.D., Chair
Works in Progress Seminar
NEW YORK PSYCHOANALYTIC SOCIETY & INSTITUTE
247 East 82nd Street, NY, NY 10028 | 212.879.6900 | nypsi.org