Keynote Speaker

Thursday, March 27
5:30 – 7:00 pm

Jordan W. Smoller, MD, ScD

Professor of Psychiatry and Science Director, Science of Health and Development Initiative, Center on the Developing Child, Harvard University

Associate Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry; Director, Psychiatric Genetics Department of Psychiatry; Director, Psychiatric and Neurodevelopmental Genetics Unit, Center for Human Genetic Research; and Co-Director, Genetics & Genomics Unit, Clinical Research Program, Massachusetts General Hospital

Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health

Associate Member, Broad Institute

Will Genetic Research Help Us Find Better Treatments?

The focus of Jordan Smoller’s research career has been to identify the role of genes and experience in patients’ risks for developing major depression, anxiety, bipolar, and other psychiatric disorders. He and his colleagues also study pharmacogenetic predictors of treatment response and the ways in which advances in genetics may affect clinical practice in psychiatry.

The author of The Other Side of Normal: How Biology Is Providing the Clues to Unlock the Secrets of Normal and Abnormal Behavior, Dr. Smoller is also an author of more than 200 scientific articles, book chapters, and reviews, and he has been a principal investigator of numerous NIH-funded studies of the genetics of anxiety and the genetics of bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia, as well as brain-imaging phenotypes.

Jerilyn Ross Lecture

Friday, March 28

Zindel V. Segal, PhD, CPsych

Distinguished Professor of Psychology in Mood Disorders, University of Toronto – Scarborough

Senior Scientist, Campbell Family Research Institute, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health  

What Is the Role of Mindfulness Meditation in the Treatment of Anxiety Disorders? Indicators, Caveats, and Empirical Status 

Dr. Zindel V. Segal has pioneered the use of mindfulness meditation for promoting wellness in depression and anxiety disorders. He is a cognitive psychologist, a specialist on depression, and a founder of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy, or MBCT. Based on mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR), MBCT is designed to help prevent the relapse of depression and chronic unhappiness, specifically in those with major depressive disorder. It combines traditional cognitive-behavioral therapy methods with mindfulness and mindfulness meditation. As described on Dr. Segal’s website, “The heart of this work lies in becoming acquainted with the modes of mind that often characterize mood disorders while simultaneously learning to develop a new relationship to them.”

Dr. Segal’s research has helped to characterize psychological markers of relapse vulnerability to affective disorder. His study of mindfulness meditation and antidepressant medication has been featured in the the Wall Street Journal, CNN Health Online, and The New York Times. An author of more than 10 books and 100 scientific publications, Dr. Segal’s latest publication, The Mindful Way Through Depression: Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness, is a patient guide for dealing with stress and achieving mood balance in everyday life.