Kelsey Biddle

This author has written 8 articles

Nancy Donovan Recognized as APA Distinguished Fellow .

Nancy Donovan was recognized for her contributions to the field of Psychiatry at the 2021 American Psychiatric Association meeting – Finding Equity Through Advances in Mind & Brain in Unsettled Times. Distinguished fellows are nationally recognized for their demonstrated skill in administrative, educational and clinical settings. They are also noted for volunteering in mental health and medical activities of social significance and involvement in community activities. Excellence, not mere competence, is the hallmark of an APA distinguished fellow.

MGB colleagues, including Olivia Okereke MD and Gaston Baslet MD, were also selected as distinguished fellows. Read the MA Psychiatric Society’s announcement here.

Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology: Principles in Practice Textbook Published Online and in Print.

Neuropsychiatry and Behavioral Neurology: Principles and Practice is a clinically-oriented textbook that aims to link rapid advances in basic, cognitive, and affective neuroscience with the care of patients struggling with losses that often involve their most cherished human capacities. The work was inspired by an annual Harvard Medical School course on the same topic that the editors and their colleagues at Brigham and Women’s Hospital initiated in 2014.

Read Dr. Donovan’s chapter on the Neuropsychiatry of Alzheimer’s Disease here.

Nancy Donovan Invited to Speak at NIMH Social Disconnection and Suicide Workshop.

Dr. Donovan presents her research, titled “Social disconnection in older adults with Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative conditions” at the NIMH Social Disconnection and Suicide Workshop on September, 17th 2020.

Dr. Donovan’s talk can be viewed in the Youtube video (below) starting at 49:00.

Dr. Donovan’s talk is recorded here between 49:00 and 1:02:00.

New findings on social engagement, amyloid-beta and cognitive decline published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry

Using data from the Harvard Aging Brain Study, Kelsey Biddle and colleagues found that low social engagement is associated with worsening cognition in older adults who are cognitively normal but have neuroimaging evidence of Alzheimer’s disease pathophysiologic change. These findings emphasize the importance of social engagement as a resilience or vulnerability marker in older adults at risk of cognitive impairment due to AD and support recommendations promoting social engagement in older adults. [Article]

New Loneliness-Tau findings published in Translational Psychiatry

NeAR’s neuroimaging research assistant, Fred d’Oleire Uquillas and colleagues have identified an association between right enthorhinal tau pathology and greater feelings of loneliness in cognitively normal older adults. The results of this paper provide further support for loneliness as a socioemotional symptom in preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease.  [Article]

Dr. Nancy Donovan selected for NASEM committee on social isolation and loneliness

Dr. Nancy Donovan joins the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committee to address the health and medical dimensions of social isolation and loneliness in older adults. This committee will examine how social isolation and loneliness impact health outcomes in older adults aged 50 and older, particularly among low income, underserved, and vulnerable populations. [Article]

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