ECNP Podcast — more information

Episode title: Mechanisms behind emotional processing and drug response in the treatment of depression and anxiety

Interviewee: Catherine Harmer, United Kingdom
Catherine Harmer is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University Department of Psychiatry in Oxford. She directs a multidisciplinary team of researchers in the Psychopharmacology and Emotion Research Lab (PERL) using a variety of techniques such as fMRI, MEG, TMS, psychopharmacological challenge techniques and neuropsychological assessments. Her work has led to the novel idea that antidepressants may work by rapidly resolving negative affective bias in depression which leads to gradual improvements in mood, social dysfunction and other key symptoms of depression over time. This concept has stimulated new research approaches for the treatment of depression with implications for stratification of treatment, early prediction of therapeutic response and identification of novel therapeutic targets. Catherine Harmer has been awarded prizes from the British Association for Psychopharmacology and the Royal College of Psychiatrists for this research and is the 2013 recipient of the AE Bennett award from the Society of Biological Psychiatry.

Interviewer: Aiste Lengvenyte, France
Dr. Aiste Lengvenyte is a psychiatrist and researcher at the CHU Montpellier in Montpellier, France. She is currently a member of the ECNP Early Career Academy Board and is also a member of the ECNP Depression Meta Network. Her primary interests are the relationship between inflammation and suicidal behaviours, mood disorders, and stress pathology in general.