Services
We seek to conduct state of the art research that will help us understand why some patients are at much higher risk of suicide so that we can identify new ways of detecting high-risk patients and better ways of helping them reduce their risk. We do this in an environment that offers careful and comprehensive evaluation, monitoring of clinical state and medication treatment of identified psychiatric disorders.
Suicide is almost always a complication of psychiatric illness and occurs in those with a pre-existing predisposition. To understand the causes of suicidal behavior, the Conte Center actively recruits depressed patients, offspring of suicide attempters, and healthy volunteers for ongoing studies.
The Conte Center at Columbia University and The New York State Psychiatric Institute is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and employs a multidisciplinary approach to study how reported childhood adversity can mold the predisposition for suicidal behavior and affect suicide risk from teens to old age.
The Conte Center's training programs expose qualified students, fellows, and residents to the latest translational research and tools, enriching their research background to develop feasible, translational research projects.
Research Projects
Neurobiology of Suicide
Project 1 Neurobiology of Suicide: Childhood Adversity, Neuroinflammation and Genomics Childhood adversity is associated with greater risk for depression in adulthood, aggressive traits and...
Animal Models of Suicide: Behavior, Neurobiological and Molecular Phenotype
Project 2 Animal Models of Suicide: Behavior, Neurobiological and Molecular Phenotype We have previously established that mice exposed to postnatal maternal separation manifest increased...
PET Neuroimaging in Mood Disorders and Suicidal Behavior
Project 3 PET Neuroimaging in Vivo in Mood Disorders and Suicidal Behavior The molecular pathways contributing to depression and suicide risk are not well...
Cognitive Phenotypes
Project 4 Cognitive Phenotype Neural Circuitry in Vivo In Mood Disorders and Suicidal Behavior Studying the neural mechanisms underlying clinical dysfunction Over the past...
Stress Response and Suicidal Behavior
Project 5 Stress, Inflammation, Aggression and Emotion Regulation in Suicidal Behavior Aggression, childhood adversity, and behavioral and physiological responses to stress are all critical...
Statistical Models of Suicidal Behavior and Brain Biology Using Large Data Sets
Project 6 Statistical Models of Suicidal Behavior and Brain Biology Using Large Data Sets At the heart of the Conte Center is the effort...