Events
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05 March 2013
GCPH Seminar Series 9 Lecture 5 - Prof. Rachel Yehuda
Location: RCPSG (Royal College of Physicians & Surgeons Glasgow), 232-242 St. Vincent Street, Glasgow, G2 5RJ
View mapProfessor Rachel Yehuda PhD
Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of the Mental Health Patient Care Center and the James J Peters Bronx Veterans Affairs Hospital, New York CityOur understanding of the effects of extreme adversity has evolved a great deal over the last several decades. Early studies emphasised that the effects of stress were temporary and could be restored to pre-stress conditions by removing the stressor. It is now clear that although some effects of stress are transient, many persist for years and decades, and some are even transmitted to the next generation. The biological underpinnings of these effects have only been discovered recently, but allow for a more precise description of the effects of adversity, including, most importantly, the subjective feeling of survivors that extremely adverse events are transformative. The idea that many biological systems do not simply return to baseline levels is an important concept that has implications for understanding how environmental events change the way genes function to produce responses that are more conducive to resilience and good health. Most of the work presented described decade long studies of adult children of Holocaust survivors, and studies of babies born in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, thus special considerations regarding the effects of stress on pregnancy were also considered.
Rachel Yehuda, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Director of the Mental Health Patient Care Center and the James J Peters Bronx Veterans Affairs hospital, both in New York City. Over her 25 year career, she has published several hundred papers and compiled over ten volumes examining the neurobiology, neuroendocrinology and molecular biology of traumatic stress in many diverse populations. She has been the recipient of numerous federal grants for her research, and has won many awards nationally and internationally for her scientific advances. She has received honorary professorships from both the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich and Leiden University. She is currently the Director of the Traumatic Stress Studies Division at Mount Sinai.