Parents And Researchers To Receive Top Honors At International Conference On Bipolar Disorder

Main Category: Bipolar
Also Included In: Psychology / Psychiatry
Article Date: 26 Jun 2009 - 2:00 PDT

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At the 8th International Conference on Bipolar Disorder this week in Pittsburgh, four distinguished individuals will be honored for their contributions to bipolar disorder research, education and service. The conference is the only venue in the world devoted exclusively to highlighting new research into bipolar disorder

Joyce and Dusty Sang will receive the Mogens Schou Award for Public Service for founding The Ryan Licht Sang Bipolar Foundation, in memory of their only son, Ryan, who had early-onset bipolar disorder and died at the age of 24 in 2004. The foundation's mission is to foster awareness, understanding and research for child and adolescent bipolar disorder. One of its major initiatives is a "Quest For The Test™" to find an empirical test for bipolar disorder so that early detection and intervention become a reality.

Lakshmi N. Yatham, M.B.B.S., F.R.C.P.C., M.R.C.Psych. (U.K.), will receive the Mogens Schou Award for Education and Advocacy. Dr. Yatham is a professor of psychiatry and associate head for research and international affairs in the Department of Psychiatry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, where his research focuses on neurobiology and treatment of bipolar disorder and major depression. Dr. Yatham leads a Canadian consortium on bipolar disorder, which is pursuing testing of new treatments for bipolar disorder. He also is chair of the bipolar group of the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments and is actively involved at a national and international level in continuing medical and public education on diagnosis and treatment of bipolar disorder.

Guy Goodwin, D.Phil., F.Med.Sci., will receive the Mogens Schou Award for Research. Dr. Goodwin is the head of the Department of Psychiatry, Oxford University, where his research focuses on the treatment of severe psychiatric illness and the application of neuroscience in understanding the neurobiology of mood disorders. Dr. Goodwin is researching the neurobiology of vulnerability to mood disorders and the psychopharmacology of emotional processing. He also has helped develop the basis for larger-scale clinical trials in bipolar affective disorder (BALANCE and CEQUEL).

"This year's Mogens Schou Awards continue the strong tradition of honoring those heroes who are making major advances that bring hope to those suffering from bipolar disorder," said David J. Kupfer, M.D., the Thomas P. Detre Professor and chairman, Department of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

The Mogens Schou Awards were named in recognition and appreciation of Mogens Schou, M.D., Dr. Med. Sci., honorary president, International Society of Bipolar Disorders, and emeritus professor, The Psychiatric Hospital, Risskov, Denmark. His groundbreaking research over 50 years ago proved lithium's significant mood stabilizing effects for the treatment of bipolar disorders. The awards ceremony takes place at 8:30 p.m., Friday, June 26, at The Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh in Oakland.

The Eighth International Conference on Bipolar Disorder, which is being sponsored by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC, is the only venue in the world devoted exclusively to highlighting new research into bipolar disorder. The disease affects both adults and children, devastates families and work relationships, accounts for nearly half of all suicides in the United States, and costs billions in medical bills, missed work and lower productivity.

For more information on the meeting, visit http://www.8thbipolar.org.

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8th International Conference on Bipolar Disorder