Dr. Hilary Blumberg, Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program at the Yale School of Medicine, will discuss the plasticity of the brain, factors that can adversely affect the brain, and her research devoted to understanding how suicide behavior develops among individuals with bipolar disorder.

Dr. Blumberg will also highlight a new psycho-behavioral treatment that can help prevent suffering and suicide. Further insight regarding this treatment will be presented by the two licensed clinicians who work on the team, Bernadette Lecza, LPC and Erin Carrubba, LPC.

The audience will gain a better understanding about bipolar brain research and new treatments, hope in brain neuroplasticity, and how to help your loved ones.

The virtual event will take place from 7:00 to 8:30 pm on Thursday, February 11, 2021. The presentation is hosted by the Southwest CT affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), and is free and open to the public. Registration for the online event can be completed HERE.

Dr. Hilary Patricia Blumberg is the John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience and Professor of Psychiatry, of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging, the Child Study Center, and Director of the Mood Disorders Research Program, at the Yale School of Medicine. Her research is devoted to understanding brain circuitry differences that underlie mood disorders and the associated high risk of suicide, and circuitry changes in mood disorders across the lifespan. She directs the Mood Disorders Research Program at Yale that brings together a multi-disciplinary group of scientists to study the genetic, developmental and environmental factors that cause mood disorders to develop, new methods for early detection, more effective interventions, and prevention. She and her team are currently studying a new psycho-behavioral treatment to help reduce mood symptoms, and her study across the lifespan has more recently extended to later life. She studied neuroscience graduating summa cum laude as an undergraduate at Harvard University and completed her medical degree, psychiatry training and specialty training in neuroimaging at Cornell University Medical College prior to joining the Yale faculty in 1998.

This event is presented by NAMI Southwest CT. NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness, is the nation's largest grassroots nonprofit organization aimed at improving quality of life for people living with mental health conditions and their families. NAMI Southwest CT is the local affiliate serving lower Fairfield County.