UConn Health

June 27, 2012 | Carolyn Pennington

Late Life Depression: Advancing Understanding through Translational Neuroscience

Incoming Psychiatry Chair Dr. David Steffens delivers Raisz Lectureship in Clinical and Translational Research.

Dr. David Steffens

Dr. David Steffens was the Lawrence G. Raisz, M.D. Lectureship in Clinical and Translational Research speaker Tuesday at the UConn Health Center. (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

Dr. David Steffens
Dr. David Steffens was the Lawrence G. Raisz, M.D. Lectureship in Clinical and Translational Research speaker Tuesday at the UConn Health Center. (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

Dr. David Steffens, the incoming chair for the Department of Psychiatry, was the speaker for the Lawrence G. Raisz, M.D. Lectureship in Clinical and Translational Research Tuesday at the UConn Health Center. The lecture series is presented by the Connecticut Institute for Clinical and Translational Science (CICATS).

His lecture focused on “Late Life Depression: Advancing Understanding through Translational Neuroscience.” (view the presentation)

Steffens is currently the professor of psychiatry and medicine, vice chair for education and head of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center. He will join the Health Center on July 2.

Steffens has a strong clinical and research interest in geriatric affective and cognitive disorders. His research includes a National Institutes of Mental Health-sponsored longitudinal study of depression in the elderly, neuroimaging and genetic studies of late-life depression, cognitive outcomes of depression, and treatment of geriatric depression, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia.

Steffens has served as the chair for the Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging Study Section at the Centers for Scientific Review at the National Institutes of Health. He is the current president-elect of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Clinically, at Duke, he specialized in care for older depressed patients and for demented patients with psychiatric and behavioral problems.

Dr. Bruce Liang, chief of cardiology, and Dr. David Steffens, incoming chair of psychiatry
(left to right) Dr. Bruce Liang, chief of cardiology, and Dr. David Steffens, incoming chair of psychiatry, greet each other during the Raisz Lectureship in Clinical and Translational Research. (Tina Encarnacion/UConn Health Center Photo)

CICATS is a partnership of regional hospitals, state agencies, and community health care organizations based on four principles: Collaboration, Innovation, Education, and Excellence. Its mission is to educate and nurture new scientists; increase the number of clinical and translational research projects and move discoveries into the community quickly and effectively; work collaboratively with regional stakeholders to eliminate health care disparities; and forge new partnerships between university researchers and the community.

The visiting lectureship was established in 2010 and is named after Dr. Lawrence G. Raisz, a long-serving leader in the Health Center community who was one of the preeminent experts on the management of osteoporosis and metabolic diseases in the world.

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