Psychotic Disorders Related Content

It was while attending an open Narcotics Anonymous meeting with a family member that Lisa Charland saw first-hand the powerful role peers could play in a person’s recovery. Her family member was a featured speaker, and afterward, people shared with him that he was the reason they were in recovery....

Ann K. Shinn, MD, MPH , is the 2022 recipient of the Thomas A. McMahon Mentoring Award from the Harvard-MIT Program in Health Sciences and Technology (HST). Shinn is the director of clinical research for McLean Hospital’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Research Program . The McMahon Award was...

Since its founding in 2016, McLean Hospital’s WellSpace program has expanded to provide more support and education to young adults who have had experiences with psychosis. According to WellSpace Coordinator Stephen Fedele, the program has grown from “offering just two groups one-and-a-half days a...

Schizophrenia , schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder with psychotic features are diagnoses laden with stigma, and they can sound downright frightening. Child psychiatrist Perihan Esra Guvenek-Cokol, MD , an expert in psychotic disorders, doesn’t dispute their seriousness. But she knows...

“At our program, you learn from your coworkers and you learn from your patients every day,” said Florence Morin, RN, a clinical coordinator for McLean Hospital’s Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program , known as AB2. “Also, in our job, you’re always educating people—coworkers, patients...

“Severe mental illnesses are common, they cause a lot of impairment, and available treatments are only partially effective and have many side effects,” said Dost Öngür, MD, PhD , director of McLean’s Laboratory for Early Psychosis (LEAP) Center. “One of the best promises for improving on this...

Yale Hicks told his college friends in New Orleans that he cut short his junior year abroad in Ghana because of malaria. “I lied to everybody, including myself,” said Hicks, who was experiencing hallucinations associated with what was eventually diagnosed as bipolar disorder . “I was about 21, and...

If a journey of a thousand miles begins with a step, what is better than having someone along with whom to share it? That is the philosophy behind the peer counseling program at McLean Hospital’s Division of Psychotic Disorders . “A lot of people with these conditions have difficulty working outside...

Mary Lou England, RN, came to McLean Hospital at age 23, right out of nursing school, and she never left. Now, almost 31 years later, she serves as a clinical coordinator for the Schizophrenia and Bipolar Disorder Inpatient Program . “My career has been shaped and influenced by the many women I have...

For Kathryn Eve Lewandowski, PhD , events like Women’s History Month can encourage organizations to increase their support for women professionals. “I think that it’s tremendously important that institutions like McLean take time to highlight the work that women are doing every day , and the many...

Certain drugs prescribed to teens and young adults with ADHD increase their risk of psychosis , say researchers at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Approximately 5 million individuals in the U.S. under the age of 25 are prescribed these drugs for the treatment of ADHD. The researchers...

Ross J. Baldessarini, MD , originally thought he wanted to be an industrial organic chemist, not a doctor. The prospect of medical school didn’t thrill the Williams College chemistry major. He found it to be more like a trade school than an academic endeavor, not to mention it being “cutthroat and...

For her years of work in the field of cognitive remediation, Kathryn Eve Lewandowski, PhD , will be recognized with the 2018 Science to Practice Award. Created in 2013, the award is given annually to “individuals who have done exemplary work taking cognitive remediation from the research lab to the...

Dost Öngür, MD, PhD , has been promoted to the rank of full professor at Harvard Medical School (HMS) and has also been selected to serve as the William P. and Henry B. Test Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Öngür’s impressive and substantial contributions to psychiatric knowledge, to McLean Hospital...

Joseph Stoklosa, MD , clinical director of McLean’s Division of Psychotic Disorders and assistant program director of the MGH/McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program , has been awarded the prestigious 2018 Jonathan O. Cole Award. The annual award—established in 2006, thanks to a gift from...

McLean Hospital’s Chloe Pedalino, LICSW, says that individuals receive “wraparound care while they’re in the hospital, but they don’t always get that care after discharge.” This is one reason McLean is launching its new Program of Assertive Community Treatment (PACT). The program will bring...

Andrew Smith was an avid sports fan. Always a contrarian, he rooted for the team his family wasn’t supporting. He had a quirky sense of humor, loved chatting on the phone, and taking long walks, often stopping for pizza. When he died in 2011 at age 30, after struggling for years with schizophrenia...

According to social worker Hilary Bye, young adults who have been recently diagnosed with mental illness need more than just treatment. While medications and therapy are important, people need “socialization, wellness, and a sense of community.” However, programs aimed at these needs are hard to...

In early 2016, when McLean Hospital completed the new wing of the Admissions Building, the need for its additional 31 beds was immediately—and dramatically—clear. “Within the week, we were already at capacity,” said Jeanne McElhinney, MS, RN, BC , nurse director for the Schizophrenia and Bipolar...

“In my 20s, I was treated for alcoholism and depression at McLean,” says Stephen Graham, a professor of Victorian Studies at Bard College and member of the McLean National Council. “The staff there saved my life, and for that I have a deep debt of gratitude.” Several family members also have been...