New explorations into mind-body connections

Cognitive behavior therapy treats depression by involving patients in social and physical activities, teaching problem-solving skills to resolve stressful situations, identifying distorted thought patterns that lead to depression and replacing them with more positive and useful views.

The researchers report the findings of this first-ever controlled trial of CBT in diabetes in the Oct. 15, 1998 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine. They found that a 10-week program of therapy helped relieve depression in the majority of patients with diabetes. In the months after CBT, these patients also achieved better control of their blood glucose levels.

Click to see entire article

Nobel Prize winner Robert Furchgott served on School of Medicine faculty

Robert F. Furchgott, Ph.D., one of three scientists to receive the 1998 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was a member of the School of Medicine faculty more than 40 years ago.

Formal presentation of the awards will take place Dec. 10 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Furchgott, a pharmacologist at the State University of New York (SUNY), and two other Americans, Ferid Murad, M.D., and Louis J. Ignarro, Ph.D., received the prize earlier this month for their work concerning nitric oxide as a signaling molecule in the cardiovascular system.

Furchgott came to the medical school in 1949 to work in the laboratory of world-renowned researcher Oliver H. Lowry, M.D., Ph.D., who was professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology. Furchgott previously had been an assistant professor of biochemistry at Cornell University. He joined the pharmacology department here as an assistant professor and was one of six faculty members in the 1950s.

Click to see entire article

Correction

In an Oct. 15 Record article about a grant awarded to Jeffrey F. Williamson, Ph.D., to develop imaging methods for the improvement of cervical cancer treatment, an editing error omitted information about two of his collaborators. Williamson is working with Donald L. Snyder, Ph.D., the Samuel E. Sachs Professor of Electrical Engineering and professor of radiology, and Joseph A. O'Sullivan, Ph.D., associate professor of electrical engineering, to refine a method Snyder and O'Sullivan developed to produce streak-free computed tomography (CT) images in the presence of the bulky metal applicators used for cervical cancer treatment.

Click to see entire article.

Marcus E. Raichle receives national award

Marcus E. Raichle, M.D., will receive the 1998 Karl Spencer Lashley Award from the American Philosophical Society at a Nov. 13 dinner at the society's annual meeting in Philadelphia. Raichle and colleague Michael I. Posner, Ph.D., a former Washington University faculty member now at the University of Oregon, will share the award for their contributions to brain imaging.

Click to see entire article