| | Principal Investigators
| Kathleen Merikangas, Ph.D. |
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Dr. Merikangas has been the Senior Investigator and Chief,
Section on Developmental Genetic Epidemiology and the
Associate Director for Epidemiology Policy at the National Institute of Mental Health since November 2001. Prior to coming to NIMH,
Dr. Merikangas was Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health, Psychiatry and Psychology at the Yale University School of
Medicine, where she served as Director of the Genetic Epidemiology Research Unit in the Department of Epidemiology and Public
Health. Dr. Merikangas received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Notre Dame in experimental psychology and music, a
Master's degree in clinical and counseling psychology from the University of Pittsburgh, and a Ph.D. in chronic disease epidemiology
also from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed post doctoral training in genetic epidemiology at the Yale University School of
Medicine. |
| Research Interests |
| The major areas of Dr. Merikangas' research are: (1) studies of the patterns and components of familial aggregation
of mental disorders and familial mechanisms for comorbidity of mental and medical disorders; (2) identification of
early signs and risk factors for psychiatric disorders among high and low risk youth using prospective longitudinal
high risk studies; and (3) large scale population based studies of mental disorders including high risk designs and
prospective longitudinal research. The major project underway in her research group is a community-based family
study of affective spectrum disorders and their overlap with other mental disorders, especially anxiety disorders and
medical disorders such as migraine and cardiovascular disease. The goal of this research is to identify the
endophenotypes that are closer to the biologic expression of genes underlying these disorders and environmental
moderators of genetic expression. Findings from this research are likely to have important implications for targets of
prevention and treatment of affective illness. |
| Representative Selected Recent Publications: |
- Merikangas, K.R., Avenevoli,
S., Dierker, L.C., Grillon, C. Vulnerability
factors among children at risk for anxiety disorders.
Biol Psychiatry, 46: 1523-1535, 1999.
- Merikangas KR, Chakravarti,
A, Moldin SO, Araj H, Blangero J, Burmeister M, Crabbe
Jr., DePaulo JR Jr., Foulks E, Freimer NB, Koretz
DB, Lichtenstein W, Mignot E, Reiss A, Risch NJ, Takahashi
J.: Future of Genetics of Mood Disorders Research:
Workgroup on Genetics for NIMH Strategic Plan for
Mood Disorders, Biol Psychiatry, 52: 457-477, 2002.
- Merikangas KR.:
Genetic epidemiology: Bringing genetics to the population—the
Nordic Association of Psychiatric Epidemiology Lecture
2001. Acta Psychiatrica Scand, 105: 3-13, 2002.
- Merikangas KR, Avenevoli
S, Acharyya S, Zhang H, Angst J.: The spectrum
of social phobia in the Zurich Cohort Study of Young
Adults. Biol Psychiatry, 51: 81-91, 2002.
- Merikangas KR, Avenevoli,
S.: Epidemiology of mood and anxiety disorders
in children and adolescents. In M.T. Tsaung &
M. Tohen (eds), Textbook in Psychiatric Epidemiology,
2nd Edition, 2002.
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