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Clinical Research Scholars Program (CRSP)

Principal Investigator: Dwight L. Evans, MD
Co-Principal Investigator: Anthony L. Rostain, MD

Overview

Our NIMH-funded Clinical Research Scholars Program (CRSP) grant provides protected time in the PGY2 through PGY4 years, as well as a full-time research PGY5 year, for two residents in each class who are interested in psychiatric clinical research. Residents apply to the CRSP program during the PGY1 year.

Research Training

The program includes intensive individual mentorship with senior faculty in the department, specialized didactics in research methods, and focused administrative support. Over 25 faculty members are involved in mentoring scholars and leading seminar sessions on conducting patient-oriented research.

Career Development and Goals

It is expected that these scholars will be able to secure academic positions following their training, and that they will be poised to become productive clinical researchers, helping to remedy the relative paucity of patient-oriented investigators in mental health research. Several recent CRSP graduates have joined the Department of Psychiatry faculty at UPenn.

Recent Projects

Some examples of recent Clinical Research Scholars’ projects include:

• Neuroimaging of ADHD in adolescents
• TMS for auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia
• Sub-syndromal depression in geriatric primary care
• Cognitive deficits associated with depression
• Smoking and body image in adolescent females
• Assertive community treatment for chronic mental illness
• MAP kinase physiology in olfactory epithelium of patients with bipolar disorder
• Clinical profiles predictive of polypharmacy in seriously mental health consumers in community mental health programs
• VMAT1 in Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia
• The role of hope and positive attitudes about care in predicting participation in and outcomes of treatment
• Brain stimulation techniques for the treatment of severe depression
• Outcomes and preventative measurements for patients presenting with partial acute stress disorder following a trauma
• Cultural differences in description of depression in geriatric patients