New York, June 06, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) is hosting a free webinar, “Developing New Treatments for Childhood Anxiety and OCD: Can Cognitive Control Help Kids Grow Out of Illness?” on Tuesday, June 13, 2023, at 2:00 pm EST. The presenter will be Kate D. Fitzgerald, M.D., Ruane Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Columbia University/New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Fitzgerald is also a recipient of two BBRF Young Investigator Grants. The webinar will be hosted by Jeffrey Borenstein, M.D., President & CEO of the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and host of the public television series Healthy Minds.
Register today at BBRFoundation.org
Rates of anxiety and OCD have increased significantly in children and adolescents. Can cognitive control help kids be less anxious and grow out of OCD? Dr. Fitzgerald’s clinical and research expertise is in pediatric obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and anxiety disorder. She will discuss her work and its implications for developing new treatments.
Dr. Fitzgerald has studied atypical development of neural circuitry devoted to "task control" -- an executive control mechanism that enables an individual to suppress irrelevant automatic behaviors such as the obsessive behaviors seen in OCD. She will discuss her research to elucidate developmentally sensitive mechanisms of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) that might make it possible to target task control differently for patients of different ages. Dr. Fitzgerald is also studying a play-based cognitive training strategy designed to reduce early childhood anxiety by increasing brain capacity for cognitive control.
About Brain & Behavior Research Foundation
The Brain & Behavior Research Foundation awards research grants to develop improved treatments, cures, and methods of prevention for mental illness. These illnesses include addiction, ADHD, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, borderline personality disorder, depression, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, and schizophrenia, as well as research on suicide prevention. Since 1987, the Foundation has awarded more than $440 million to fund more than 5,300 leading scientists around the world. 100% of every dollar donated for research is invested in research. BBRF operating expenses are covered by separate foundation grants. BBRF is the producer of the Emmy® nominated public television series Healthy Minds with Dr. Jeffrey Borenstein, which aims to remove the stigma of mental illness and demonstrate that with help, there is hope.
Attachments
Myrna Manners Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (718) 986-7255 mmanners@mannersdotson.com
