More people suffer from anxiety disorders (including OCD) than any other mental illness; these disorders are the sixth leading cause of global disability, according to the World Health Organization. Helen Blair Simpson, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and Director of the Anxiety Disorders Clinic at the New York State Psychiatric Institute, will describe how the latest neuroscience is transforming our understanding of and treatments for anxiety and OCD, offering new hope in the face of fear.
Dr. Blair Simpson focuses on translating scientific discoveries into new treatments for anxiety and related disorders, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). For the patients of today, she uses clinical trial methodology to study the most effective ways to deliver current treatments. For the patients of tomorrow, she collaborates with brain imagers, geneticists and basic research scientists to study these diseases' underlying mechanisms. Her research has been funded continuously by the National Institute of Mental Health since 1999. Because of her expertise, she advised the World Health Organization on Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders and helped to develop the first treatment guidelines for OCD for the American Psychiatric Association.
Dr. Simpson graduated from Yale College with a BS in biology. She then completed the MD-PhD program at The Rockefeller University/Cornell University Medical College and internship and residency training at the Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center/New York State Psychiatric Institute. She joined the Anxiety Disorders Clinic in 1996 and has served as its Director since 2006.
Registration is required; seating is first come; first served.
This talk is part of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Brain Insight Lecture series, offered free to the public to enhance understanding of the biology of the mind and the complexity of human behavior. The lectures are hosted by Columbia’s Mortimer B. Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute and supported by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation.