Treatment of affect recognition for individuals with acquired brain injury
PI:  Barry Willer PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry
CoPI:  Thomas Polisoto MD, Clinical Professor, Department of Rehabilitation    Medicine
Funding: Application submitted to National Institute of Disability and     Rehabilitation  Research
Description: Approximately 25% of individuals with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury have deficiency in the ability to recognize emotion expressed by others. As a result, these individuals are greatly restricted in their social interactions. We are investigating the effectiveness of two treatment approaches in a registered (NIH) clinical trial format: (1) Facial affect recognition training; and (2) Social inference training.  Facial affect recognition involves teaching the specific facial features of individuals expressing emotions such as anger, fear and sadness. Inference training is more cognitive and teaches the individual how to infer emotions from the contextual cues of the situation in which the emotion is expressed.

Treatment of post concussion syndrome using regulated exercise
PI:  Barry Willer PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry
CoPI:  John Leddy MD, Associate Professor and Associate Director, UB Institute   of Sports Medicine
  Karl Koslowski M.A. Clinical Instructor, Director, Athletic Trainer    program, UB School of Public Health
Funding: Application under preparation to National Institute of Health
Description: Approximately 5% of individuals who experience a concussion will have symptoms that persist beyond the normal period of recovery. Post concussion syndrome (PCS) is generally treated with anti depressants which has little if any real benefit.  We are treating individuals with PCS with exercise. We establish the threshold at which exercise will exacerbate symptoms and then develop a sub-threshold exercise program. Preliminary results indicate that depressive symptoms are reduced almost immediately and other symptoms can reduce over a six week period.

Epidemiology of injury among pediatric ice hockey players
PI:  Barry Willer PhD, Professor, Department of Psychiatry
CoPI:  John Leddy MD, Associate Professor and Associate Director, UB Institute   of Sports Medicine
Funding: None 
Description: Previous studies of ice hockey injury rates have not looked at very young players.  We have data on approximately 10,000 player years of youngsters from 4 to 17 years of age. We have published one paper describing the rates of injuries across the ages and levels of play. Our next paper will describe the mechanisms of injury.  Our plan is to compile sufficient data to look at specific types of injury such as concussion and fracture. The long range goal is to determine the best means to prevent or reduce injury. 

Prediction of Psychiatric Diagnosis with SPECT Brain Imaging: a Prospective Clinical Trial
P.I. Dr. Dubovsky
Co-Investigators: Drs. Nabi and Baker
The primary objective of this study is to compare high resolution SPECT with the "gold standard" diagnostic method in psychiatry- a validated structured diagnostic interview in identifying bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, ADHD, and unipolar depression in a clinical. A diagnosis (or diagnoses) made with a validated formal diagnostic interview administered by a trained interviewer will be compared with a psychiatric diagnosis made by SPECT blind to clinical data.
The primary outcome measure is concordance of the SPECT diagnosis with standardized interview diagnoses.