Category: Awards and Recognition

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The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded a $3.4 million grant to the Lindner Center of Hope’s Dr. Francisco Romo-Nava, MD, PhD. Dr. Romo-Nava is Associate Chief Research Officer at the Lindner Center of Hope and Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati (UC) Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience. This phased innovation R61/33 grant is titled “Modulating spinal interoceptive pathways to evaluate their role and therapeutic potential in MDD symptomatic domains” and will study a novel non-invasive form of spinal cord neuromodulation to study and treat major depressive disorder (MDD).

The multidisciplinary study team is led by principal Investigator and physician-scientist Dr. Romo-Nava and Co-Investigators Dr. Susan L. McElroy, MD, Chief Research Officer at the Lindner Center of Hope, Drs. Jeffrey Welge, PhD, and Dave Fleck, PhD at UC’s Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Dr. Oluwole Awosika, MD at UC’s Department of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine, and Dr. Ishita Basu, PhD at UC’s Department of Neurosurgery. Dr. Martin Paulus from the Laureate Institute for Brain Research and Dr. Jeff Liu Chang-chia, PhD, from the University of Virginia, will be consultants on the study. Key team members at the Lindner Center of HOPE Research Institute are the lead research coordinator Georgi Georgiev, Research Nurse Nicole Mori, Biostatistician Thomas J. Blom, Dr. Anna I. Guerdjikova, Jakyb Stoddard, Aspen Madrid, and Genie Groff.

This study builds on a successful pilot clinical trial conducted by the research team at the Lindner Center of Hope and funded by a NARSAD Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Young Investigator Award (Dr. Romo-Nava), which also served as the basis for a USPTO patent (#10,857,356) issued for transcutaneous spinal cord stimulation for the treatment of psychiatric disorders. The intervention involved brief sessions where a mild and generally well-tolerated current is applied through the skin using an electrode placed at the level of the mid-back and another electrode placed over the shoulder. The pilot study showed therapeutic potential for this novel approach and was recently published at one of the top scientific journals in the field of psychiatry (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-023-02349-9).

This new R61/33 grant involves a project with two phases. During the first phase (R61 phase), the project will evaluate whether a non-invasive form of spinal cord stimulation at different doses can reach and modulate specific spinal interoceptive pathways among adults with MDD. These are neuronal pathways in the spinal cord that convey information about bodily states to the brain and are thought to be relevant for emotional experience and the concept of mood. This first phase will last two years and is expected to identify neurophysiological markers of target engagement that will inform on the optimal dose to modulate these spinal interoceptive pathways. Recruitment for the first phase is expected to start 12/2024.

If successful, the team will then conduct the second phase (R33 phase). This phase involves an 8-week double-blinded, randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial to evaluate the efficacy and safety of this form of non-invasive spinal cord stimulation among participants with MDD. During this clinical trial the team will also aim to replicate the target engagement markers identified in the first phase and evaluate their relevance for treatment response. The second phase is expected to have a duration of three years.

When completed, the project is expected to generate important new knowledge on the role of brain-body interaction pathways in MDD and the potential of spinal interoceptive pathways as novel therapeutic targets. The results of this project will inform on the potential efficacy and safety of non-invasive spinal cord stimulation as a new tool to study and treat MDD and will guide future studies.

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Mason, OH, August 30, 2024 – Lindner Center of HOPE, Chief Research Officer, Susan L. McElroy, MD, was recently named to the Research.com “Best Female Scientists in the United States 2024 Ranking” for her contributions to the advancement of science. Dr. McElroy is ranked #105 in the United States among Best Scientists for 2024.

Dr. McElroy’s profile can be found at Susan L. McElroy: Medicine H-index & Awards – Academic Profile | Research.com.

This was the third edition of the Research.com ranking of top female scientists in the United States and was based upon data collected from a wide range of bibliometric sources. Position in the ranking is based on a scholar’s general H-index.​

Research.com’s ranking of best female scientists in the world comprises of leading female scientists from all key scientific disciplines. It was based on a meticulous evaluation of 166,880 researchers.​

The H-index threshold for approving a researcher to be considered for a global ranking was chosen independently for each scientific discipline, but was in most cases equal to 30 or 40. The acceptance standards for scientists to be considered into the global ranking of top female scientists are based on the H-index, rate of the publications made within a given discipline plus also on the awards and accomplishments of the scientists. Only top 1000 scholars with the highest H-index are included in the ranking.

Dr. McElroy is internationally known for her research in bipolar disorder, eating disorders, obesity, impulse control disorders and pharmacology. She is the author of over 600 scientific papers in leading medical journals and was the 8th most cited scientist in the world published in the fields of psychiatry and psychology since 1996. She has also authored over 150 reviews and chapters in major psychiatric textbooks. Dr. McElroy is the editor or author of 4 scientific books and serves on the editorial boards of 5 journals.

As Chief Research Officer she currently oversees multiple ongoing studies in mood, anxiety, eating and impulse control disorders, genetics and psychopharmacology.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that less than 30 percent of the world’s researchers are women.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE                                                                             CONTACT: 

Jennifer Pierson
Sr. Director of Marketing and Outreach
Lindner Center of HOPE
(513) 536-0316
 [email protected]                                                                                                         

 

Lindner Center of HOPE Receives $1.25 Million Pledge from The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners

The Lindner Center of HOPE is pleased to announce a recent pledge of $1.25 million from The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners. This significant contribution will play a crucial role in advancing mental health research and providing vital support to patients in need.

As requested by The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners, $1 million of the pledge will be dedicated to the Center’s Research Institute, with the remaining $250,000 allocated to the Center’s patient financial assistance “Helping Hands” fund. The Helping Hands Fund was established by the High Hopes Auxiliary when Lindner Center of HOPE opened in 2008 and exists to provide financial assistance to patients in need.

In recognition of this extraordinary gift, The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners requested The Research Institute at Lindner Center of HOPE be named in honor of Susan L. McElroy, MD. Upon learning of this remarkable gesture, Dr. McElroy expressed her deep gratitude, stating, “I am overwhelmed and humbled by this gift. This support will greatly enhance our efforts in mental health research, improving the management, treatment, and prevention of mental illnesses, and alleviating the suffering of countless individuals.”

The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners’ support not only aids our mission but also encourages other organizations and individuals to contribute to our cause. Their commitment to mental health is an inspiration to all who seek to make a difference in the lives of those affected by mental health disorders.

“We are incredibly grateful for the generosity of The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners,” said Dr. Paul R. Crosby, President and CEO of the Lindner Center of HOPE. “Their support will have a lasting impact on our community, and we are honored to be among the organizations they support.”

Connor Group managing partner Larry Connor said the pledge is a strategic investment that will help combat America’s mental health crisis.

“We’ve vetted programs across the country,” he said. “And we believe the work being done at the Lindner Center of HOPE, today and in the future, can be generationally transformational.”

About Lindner Center of HOPE:

Lindner Center of HOPE in Mason is a comprehensive mental health center providing patient-centered, scientifically advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science, mental health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the Center provides psychiatric hospitalization, residential services, and substance use disorders treatment for adults, outpatient services for all ages, and partial hospitalization for individuals age 12-years-old and older, , and research. The Center is enhanced by its partnerships with UC Health and Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center as their clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Patients and families who may benefit from Lindner Center services may call (513) 536-HOPE (4673) for an initial assessment. Learn more at LindnerCenterofHope.org.

 

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About The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners:

The Connor Group Kids & Community Partners is the non-profit arm of real estate investment firm The Connor Group. It operates as a non-profit activist investor in programs that help pull kids out of generational poverty. It also has started three independent programs of its own, including The Greater Dayton School – Ohio’s first private non-religious school exclusively for under-resourced students.

For more information, please visit www.lindnercenterofhope.org or www.kidsandcommunitypartners.org.

 

 

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Team Members discuss final event plans for their Big Watch Party, “Touchdown for HOPE,” – Lindner Center of HOPE’s signature fundraising event, hosted each year at the Great American Ballpark.

Pictured L-R: Terry Ohnmeis, David Tasner, Mary Alexander, Carl Satterwhite, John Winch, Gary Mitchell, Brock Anderson, John Ryan, Graham Mercurio Not pictured: Chrissey Barrett Haslam, Greg Harmeyer, Jennifer Pierson, Scott Robertson, Ryan Rybolt, Joel Stone, and David Wyler

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Lindner Center of HOPE congratulates Tracy Suzanne Cummings, MD, as a 2023 Cincy Best Doc in the Child & Adolescent Psychiatry category.

This is the premier medical award for all practitioners in the Greater Cincinnati region. Nominations were open to the community and allowed for nominations across many different categories, and the best in each category were chosen. Being named as a Cincy Best Docs physician is an exceptional honor.

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LCOH-UC study: Spinal cord stimulation a potential new way to treat depression

Lindner Center of HOPE, UC researcher publishes pilot study showing feasibility of method

A pilot clinical trial led by Lindner Center of HOPE Research Institute and University of Cincinnati researchers at the Lindner Center of HOPE found electrical stimulation of the spinal cord is feasible, well-tolerated, and shows therapeutic potential to treat depression.

The results of the trial were published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry on Dec. 20. View link at https://rdcu.be/dt41x

Research background

Principal investigator Francisco Romo-Nava, MD, PhD, said his research focuses on how brain-body communication is involved in psychiatric disorders.

“We think that the connection between the brain and the body is essential for psychiatric disorders,” said Romo-Nava, Associate Chief Research Officer for the Research Institute at the Lindner Center of HOPE, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at UC, and a UC Health physician scientist. “Many of the symptoms of mood disorders or eating disorders or anxiety disorders have to do with what one could interpret as dysregulation in this brain-body interaction.”

Romo-Nava said pathways of neurons located in the spinal cord convey information from the body to regions of the brain that are involved in the emotional experience we know as mood. When functioning properly, the brain uses this information to constantly make adjustments to help regulate a person’s mood.

While major depressive disorder can have many different causes, one contributor could be this pathway being overloaded with information.

“For example, chronic stress could lead to a hyperactive brain-body circuit that eventually burns the system out and prevents it from adjusting itself in an effective and optimal way,” Romo-Nava said.

The research team looked at different ways to modulate this interaction between the brain and body and developed a novel approach through non-invasive spinal cord stimulation. Romo-Nava received a patent for the device obtained a patent in 2020 for the stimulation method used after working with UC’s Office of Innovation.

The spinal cord stimulation is designed to decrease the flow of information in the brain-body circuit so that the brain is better able to readjust and regulate itself.

“Spinal cord stimulation is thought to help the brain modulate itself as it should by decreasing the noise or decreasing the hyperactive signaling that may be in place during a depressive syndrome,” Romo-Nava said.

The investigational device that was used is no larger than a shoe box, with the active electrode placed on the patient’s back and the return electrode placed on their right shoulder.

Trial details

With funding through a Brain & Behavior Research Foundation NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Romo-Nava designed the pilot study to test the feasibility and tolerability of spinal cord stimulation for patients with major depressive disorder.

A total of 20 patients were enrolled in the trial, with half randomized to receive the active version of the spinal cord stimulation and half receiving a different version of current that was not expected to have much of an effect.

Patients went to the Lindner Center of HOPE for three 20-minute sessions a week for eight weeks, for a total of 24 spinal stimulation sessions.

Trial results

Romo-Nava said like with most pilot studies, the primary focus of the study was the feasibility and safety of the intervention and how well patients tolerated the stimulation. The study was designed so that the dose of stimulation could be decreased if needed, but Romo-Nava said all patients tolerated the initially prescribed dose well.

“We used a current that is so small that it’s about 10 times smaller than the one known to induce tissue damage, so that’s also pretty encouraging because there’s a lot to explore in terms of what is the optimal dose and session frequency,” he said.

Side effects of the treatment were mild, including skin redness at the site of stimulation and brief non-painful itching or burning sensations that only lasted during the treatment sessions. The skin redness typically did not last more than 20 minutes after a session, Romo-Nava said.

A virtual reconstruction of how the current from the device moves through the body showed the current reaches spinal gray matter in the spinal cord, but does not reach the brain itself.

“That supports our hypothesis that it is the modulation of these pathways of information that then may induce an effect on the mood-relevant areas in the brain,” he said. “So it is not the current that reaches the brain, it is the change in the signal that then has an effect. This study is not sufficient to prove all of these components of the hypothesis, but we think it’s a great start.”

Patients that received the active stimulation had a greater decrease in the severity of their depressive symptoms compared to the control group, but Romo-Nava cautioned the study was limited by its small sample size. These results will need to be replicated in much larger studies to be confirmed.

“We need to be cautious when we interpret these results because of the pilot nature and the small sample size of the study,” he said. “While the primary outcome was positive and it shows therapeutic potential, we should acknowledge all the limitations of the study.”

Data showed participants’ resting blood pressure did not change over the course of the eight weeks, but their diastolic blood pressure (the bottom number of a blood pressure reading) decreased for a short time after each session in a cumulative way during the study.

“That may mean that we may be actually inducing a form of plastic effect on the brain-body interaction circuit that is also involved in autonomic functions like blood pressure and heart rate,” Romo-Nava said. “This is very preliminary, but it is also another signal that is in the right direction.”

Moving forward, Romo-Nava said the research team is seeking additional funding to put together an expanded trial and develop a portable version of the spinal cord stimulation device. If further studies confirm the stimulation is safe and effective to treat psychiatric disorders, future work will also be needed to find the optimal dose, frequency and conditions it can be used for.

 

Lindner Center of HOPE  provides excellent, patient-centered, scientifically advanced care for individuals suffering with mental illness. A state-of-the-science mental-health center and charter member of the National Network of Depression Centers, the center provides psychiatric hospitalization and partial hospitalization for adults, outpatient services for all ages, diagnostic and short-term residential services for adults, intensive outpatient program for substance abuse and co-occurring disorders for adults and research. The center is enhanced by its partnership with UC Health as its clinicians are ranked among the best providers locally, nationally and internationally. Together Lindner Center of HOPE and UC Health offer a true system of mental health care in the Greater Cincinnati area and across the country. The center is also affiliated with the University of Cincinnati (UC) College of Medicine.

 

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Congratulations! The readers of Mason + Deerfield Lifestyle have nominated Lindner Center of HOPE for the 2023 Readers’ Choice Awards in our Medical + Wellness categories (#8 on the ballot linked below). Voting will end at 10pm on December 14th (1 vote per email address).

Please vote here or scan QR code on attached flyer:  https://bit.ly/MDL-ReadersChoice2023

Nominated_FullPageFlyer_Readers Choice 2023

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Lindner Center of HOPE was honored to be a finalist for the Mason Deerfield Chamber 2023 Gems of Excellence Awards Community Partner of the Year Award.  We congratulate the winners and are proud to be a part of this.

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Francisco Romo-Nava MD, PhD, Associate Chief Research Officer, Lindner Center of HOPE, was granted an Emerging Scholar Travel Award for the National Network of Depression Centers (NNDC) 2023 annual conference. The conference takes place October 12 through 14 in Houston, Texas. The travel award allows for complimentary travel for the recipient.

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Laura Nixon, CPA, Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Lindner Center of HOPE has been selected as a finalist in the Cincinnati Business Courier’s 2023 C-Suite Awards. The Courier’s C-Suite Awards Program honors C-level executives from companies across the greater Cincinnati region for their contribution and commitment to the community and their outstanding professional performance.

The finalists will be recognized and winners will be named on October 12th from 5:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. at an event at Renaissance Cincinnati Downtown Hotel.

All finalists can be viewed at:  https://www.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/event/169007/2023/csuite-awards