1. Psychiatry Chair Receives Mental Health ResearchAward
Charles B. Nemeroff, M.D., Ph.D., the Leonard M. Miller Professor and Chair of
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the Center on Aging, received the
2013 V. Sagar Sethi, M.D., Mental Health Research Award from the Psychiatric
Foundation of North Carolina for his many years of cutting edge psychiatry research.
Presented September 21 at the North Carolina Psychiatric Association’s Annual Meeting
and Scientific Session: “Side Effects: Adherence, Tolerability and Insight in Psychiatric
Treatment,” the award recognizes Nemeroff for his research that has improved
understanding of the causes and pathogenesis of depression.
“When I received the award letter, I was particularly thrilled because I attended medical
school at the University of North Carolina, received residency training in North Carolina
and was a faculty member at Duke University,” Nemeroff said. “This is a very special
award because it is for an individual who has made important research contributions of
both a basic and clinical nature that have resulted in advances in translational medicine in
psychiatry.”
As part of the award, Nemeroff was invited to present his lecture titled “Prediction of
Disease Vulnerability and Treatment Response in Mood Disorders: Personalized
Medicine in Psychiatry,” in which he discussed the progress of genetic subtyping to
significantly improve matching patients with optimal treatment methods.
“We have identified genes in patients with depression and bipolar disorder that confer
their risk of developing the disorders, particularly in those with early life trauma such as
child abuse or neglect,” Nemeroff said. “In addition, we are identifying genes that predict
both side effect burden and treatment response in patients with mood disorders.”
Nemeroff’s research concentrates on the biological basis of the major neuropsychiatric
disorders, including affective disorders, schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders, and his
clinical research is focused on the use of genetic, neuroendocrine, neuroimaging and
neurochemical methods to comprehensively understand the pathophysiology of
depression. In recent years he has uncovered the neurobiological mechanisms that
mediate the increased risk for depression in victims of child abuse. He has also
contributed to seminal findings in the burgeoning area of research concerning the
relationship of depression to cardiovascular disease.
Nemeroff, who also received his doctorate degrees from the University of North Carolina
at Chapel Hill, joined the Miller School in 2009 to chair the Department of Psychiatry
and Behavioral Sciences. Since then, he has led the department’s meteoric rise in
treatment, research, education, faculty and researcher recruitment, and national rankings.
He is the recipient of numerous awards, including “Psychiatry Chair of the Year” for his
contributions to the field, dedication to and innovations in patient care, and commitment
to research and education.

2. A strong advocate for suicide prevention, Nemeroff has led the Miami-Dade County “Out
of the Darkness” suicide awareness walk for the past three years, and is an active member
of the Board of Directors of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and the
Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
The V. Sagar Sethi, M.D., Mental Research Award was created with an endowment from
Sethi, a practicing psychiatrist in Charlotte, whose vision is to “honor scientists for
significant contributions to basic research in the neurosciences, psychology, or
pharmacology at a molecular, cellular or behavioral level.”