[APDA Roster]

The Adult Psychopathology and Disorders of Aging [APDA] Study Section reviews applications concerned with emotional, behavioral, and cognitive disorders in adults. Emphasis is on clinical aspects of disorders including: schizophrenia, mood disorders, suicide, anxiety and traumatic stress disorders, eating disorders, substance use disorders, personality disorders; Alzheimer's disease, traumatic brain injury, and sleep disorders. Samples may include clinic, community diagnosed, symptomatic and high-risk groups. Relevant research includes investigations of psychological and biological vulnerability factors, processes and markers; and studies of etiology, diagnosis, course, treatment, functional outcome and comorbidity with other physical conditions and disorders. Environmental, social and cultural factors may also be studied as they relate to individual differences in psychological and biological dysfunction.

Specific areas covered by APDA:

• Psychological [e.g., cognitive, affective], biological [e.g., genetics, neural mechanisms], factors involved in etiology of disorders; shared and distinct etiologies in comorbid disorders; vulnerability and triggering factors in onset of disorders; identification of cognitive, affective and biological markers of risk for onset; the etiology of suicide; consequences of social relationships and environment on cognitive and affective disorders and in ameliorating specific dysfunction associated with disorder. Studies of environmental, social and cultural factors may be appropriate as related to individual factors.
• Diagnosis and nosology: Classification of disorders using family, course, outcome, treatment response and biological validation methods; diagnostic, clinical and functional assessment instruments and techniques; description of symptom patterns, identification of behavioral dimensions and behavioral phenotypes; identification of more homogeneous disorder subgroups; familial spectrum of disorders; cultural syndromes and the professional and indigenous taxonomies of disorders
• Course and outcome: Course of disorders including vulnerability, triggering, and protective factors involved in disorder onset, progression, relapse, and recurrence, including social and biological indicators and outcomes; comorbidity in clinical course; functional impact of comorbidity; suicide, self-harm, and behavioral risk behaviors in persons with disorders; functional outcomes [e.g., work, independent living, and social functioning] in relation to etiological factors, diagnosis, illness markers, prior interventions, and environmental risks; longitudinal course and developmental transitions [e.g., aging, reproductive transitions in diagnosed samples]; disorder in special populations [e.g., geriatric depression, postpartum depression]
• Cognitive and affective processes and markers: processes of cognition, affect, attention, and memory in samples with disorders; these processes in relation to vulnerability for onset, relapse, or recurrence of disorder; behavioral and clinical studies of these processes in diagnostic groups, or in high-risk or spectrum-disordered individuals; impact of cognitive and affective variables on functional outcomes [e.g., work, independent living, and social functioning]
• Behavioral and clinical studies of biological, genetic, and behavioral processes and/or vulnerability, disability, and illness markers [e.g., psychophysiological or neurocognitive abnormalities, structural or functional brain patterns identified by neuroimaging, genetic factors]; these processes and markers in relation to diagnosis, nosology, course, affect, and behavioral and functional outcomes
• Behavioral and pharmacologic interventions: Development and pilot testing primary or adjunctive behavioral interventions designed to alter course of disorder; behavioral and social interventions in promoting rehabilitation of persons; interventions designed to prevent comorbid outcomes; development of culturally sensitive interventions

APDA has the following shared interests within the BBBP IRG:

• Studies of basic mechanisms underlying affect and stress responses in normal and disordered populations may be assigned to MESH. Studies that examine disorders more broadly may be assigned to APDA.
• Studies of symptoms, disorders, and interventions specifically related to language/communication may be assigned to LCOM. Studies that consider a broader range of abnormality in adults may be assigned to APDA.
• Studies of cognitive/perceptual mechanisms involved in adult disorders may be assigned to CP, while studies that examine adult disorders more broadly may be assigned to APDA. Studies of preventive and remedial interventions may be assigned to APDA.
• Studies of disorders in adult or adolescent samples may be assigned to APDA. Studies of the longitudinal course of those disorders may generally be assigned to CPDD. Studies of processes common to both childhood and adult disorders may be assigned to either APDA or CPDD.
• Studies of symptoms, disorders, and interventions specifically related to motor function may be assigned to MFSR. Studies that consider a broader range of abnormality in adults may be assigned to APDA.

APDA has the following shared interests outside the BBBP IRG:

• With the Genes, Genomes and Genetics [GGG] IRG:  Studies of genetic mechanisms in adult disorders in which the emphasis is not behavioral may be assigned to the GGG IRG.
  
  
• With the Biology of Development and Aging [BDA] IRG:  Applications on an aging population with dementia or mood disorders in which a primary focus is on behavioral antecedents or endpoints may be assigned to APDA.  The BDA IRG may review the application if the primary focus is on physiological or biological antecedents and endpoints in an aging population.
  
  
• With the Health of the Population [HOP] IRG:  Studies that focus on the individual level of analysis in adult disorders and disability may be reviewed in APDA.  Applications with studies nested within multi-level, multi-contextual studies focusing on the interrelationships among individual, familial [biologic, genetic and/or environmental factors], social and cultural factors and behaviors in the etiology, natural history, and consequences of disorders and diseases may be assigned to the HOP IRG.
  
  
• With the Risk, Prevention and Health Behavior [RPHB] IRG:  Applications that focus on treatment and interventions for existing disorders and disability in adults may be assigned to APDA. Applications that focus on processes relevant to risk or a range of disorders and other outcomes, studies of interventions to control behavioral habits or disorders, or the effects of pain, symptom perception, depression, anxiety, social, cultural and other factors in relation to physical illness may be assigned to the RPHB IRG.
  
  
• With the Brain Disorders and Clinical Neuroscience [BDCN] IRG:  Studies of adult disorders that are primarily behavioral in emphasis may be assigned to APDA.  Studies that focus predominantly on neurotransmitter and receptor function in the neural disorder or injury may be assigned to the BDCN IRG.  These often involve animal models.
  
  
• Study Sections in NIAAA, NIDA and NIMH may review applications in treatment and health services research. For more information, see the Institutes' respective web sites.