Program for Intervention and Services Research
The Program for Intervention and Services Research (Program Head: John M. Kane, MD) aims to enhance the treatment and outcome of patients with major mental illnesses. A major focus is the study of patients with schizophrenia, covering all phases of the illness from the putative prodromal phase, through the first episode, to chronic patients who are refractory to clozapine. The Program is based at the Zucker Hillside Hospital, an ideal setting for clinical psychiatric investigations because of its large and varied patient population and its extensive array of clinical programs. A majority of our patients are local residents, which facilitates engaging family members in providing background data as well as in participating in other aspects of research. The treatment setting provides high quality clinical care for both inpatients and outpatients. As the lead psychiatric facility of the North Shore Long Island Jewish Health System (NS-LIJ), investigators at The Zucker Hillside Hospital can also collaborate with other institutions in the network to extend these patient resources.
Study designs include long-term naturalistic outcome designs, controlled pharmacological treatment trials and intensive cross-sectional biologic assessment protocols. A recently initiated large-scale project assesses long-term multi-dimensional treatment strategies in patients experiencing their first episode of schizophrenia; and is the centerpiece of a large-scale NIMH-funded project entitled Recovery after an Initial Episode of Schizophrenia (RAISE). Another important area of study is severe mental illness in adolescence – represented by studies of adolescent bipolar disorder and refractory childhood schizophrenia, as well as comprehensive assessment and treatment studies of the adverse effects associated with drug treatment in younger patients. Investigators within the Program publish their results in leading international and national journals including the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Archives of General Psychiatry, and the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Moreover, much of the Program’s work involves collaborations with leading clinical investigators throughout the world, and collaborative institutions include Johns Hopkins University, UCLA, Medical College of Georgia, University of Iowa, and Harvard University.
Laboratories within this program are comprised of the Laboratory of Clinical Pharmacology, led by John Kane, MD; the Laboratory of First Episode Psychosis, led by Delbert Robinson, MD; the Laboratory of Child and Adolescent Intervention, led by Christoph Correll, MD and Vivian Kafantaris, MD; the Laboratory of Treatment Adherence Research, led by Delbert Robinson, MD and John Kane, MD; the Laboratory of Somatic Treatments, led by Georgios Petrides, MD; the Recognition and Prevention Program, led by Barbara Cornblatt, PhD; and the Laboratory of Autism Research, led by Joel Bregman, MD.