Yale Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP)

Welcome! The Yale Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP) is dedicated to understanding the causes of mood and related disorders, and suicide risk, across the lifespan. The MDRP brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists from across the Yale campus in a highly collaborative research effort. We use a wide variety of scientific methods to study how genetic and environmental factors affect the brain and lead to the development of mood disorders. Goals of the MDRP include the identification of biological markers for mood disorders and discovery of new detection and treatment strategies. We hope that these research efforts will lead to new and improved methods for early detection and treatment to reduce the suffering of mood disorders and suicide.

• Studies on changes in the brain, mood symptoms and suicide risk with Brain Emotion Circuitry Targeted Self-Monitoring and Regulation Therapy (BE-SMART) in teens and young adults with bipolar and major depressive disorder, and at risk for bipolar disorder (e.g., parent or sibling with bipolar disorder)
• Studies of symptom and behavioral changes with digital technologies such as actigraphy “watches” and smartphones
• Multimodal magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies of brain circuitry differences in older adults with bipolar disorder, and how they change over time
• Multimodal MRI study to identify brain markers of suicidal thoughts and behavior in older adults with mood and psychotic disorders
• Study of novel mechanisms implicated in bipolar disorder from blood cells of stem cells and stem cell-derived brain cells
• Study of brain changes related to genetic variations that are associated with bipolar disorder and suicide

The Yale Mood Disorders Research Program (MDRP) celebrated Mental Health Awareness Month and the National Day of Hope in May by participating in the National Alliance for Mental Illness (NAMI) walk in Hartford's Bushnell Park on May 21. The event was especially important as it was NAMI's first in-person walk since 2019 and brought individuals, families, and loved ones together to support one another and walk to raise awareness of mental illness and to reduce the stigma. Pictured are Bernadette Lecza, LPC, left, and Erin Carrubba, LPC, right, study coordinators and therapists at MDRP who shared their team's mission to understand the science of mood disorders in hopes that their research efforts will lead to new and improved methods for early detection and treatment to prevent the suffering of mood disorders and suicide. Yale MDRP is directed by Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry, and in the Child Study Center and of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging.