Epidemiology

The psychiatric and neurological epidemiology cluster is an intellectual community of faculty and students in the Department of Epidemiology who share an interest in understanding the causes, origins, progression, and consequences of psychiatric and neurological disorders.

Our research and training program is committed to a population-based perspective that takes a ‘cells to society’ approach to investigate how environmental factors ‘get under the skin’ and shape psychiatric and neurological disorders over the lifecourse. We aspire to reduce the global public health burden of psychiatric and neurological disorders through making our findings accessible and in using our findings to develop effective population-wide and clinical interventions.

Selected projects

Developmental psychopathology and child psychiatric epidemiology
A number of projects in the Department focus on deviations in development that lead to mental disorders, violence, suicide, and other high risk behaviors in youth. This work has a strong global mental health focus and includes research on population based, birth cohort, and high risk samples. The child psychiatric epidemiology research group, in particular, has been actively engaged in international randomized controlled trials focused on youth suicide and school dropout.

Gene-environment interplay and psychiatric disorders
Cross-cutting collaborations among several faculty in the Department focus on how environmental exposures across the life course and at multiple levels modify the role of genetic factors in the onset and course of psychiatric and substance use disorders. One major focus of this work is on identifying the biologic mechanisms through which the urban environment produces mental disorders.

Genetics of Alzheimer’s disease in the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
This project investigates genetic factors in the development of Alzheimer’s disease among the Caribbean Hispanic population in the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and New York City, a population at a threefold higher risk for developing the disease than Caucasians.

Military deployment and psychiatric disorder
Several projects in the Department focus on the factors across the lifecourse that intersect with military experience to influence the mental health of soldiers returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This work builds on long-standing Department expertise in work with military populations starting with the Vietnam War.

The Northern Manhattan Study
The Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS) investigates risk factors, occurrence, and outcome of stroke in Northern Manhattan’s multiethnic population. Created in 1990, NOMAS is the first study of its kind to focus on stroke risk factors in whites, blacks, and Hispanics living in the same community. The initiative is also committed to developing better stroke prevention programs to improve the health of the surrounding community.

Affiliated Centers and Programs

Global Mental Health Program

Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center

Training Opportunities

Psychiatric Epidemiology Training Program

Neuroepidemiology Training Program

Cluster Faculty

A list of faculty involved in the cluster.