Joan Luby, M.D.

DEPARTMENT OF Psychiatry
Keywords: preschool, depression, early intervention, mood disorders, developmental psychopathology

The Early Emotional Development program is a combined clinical and research program focusing on mental health and early intervention for infants and preschoolers (under the age of 6). There are several ongoing federally funded studies. We are completing a five-year federally funded study of preschool depressive syndromes in which children age 3 to 6 and their primary caretakers undergo numerous observational and standard interviews to assess the developmental manifestations of early onset depression. We also are investigating possible early biological markers of preschool depression by obtaining salivary cortisol sample of our subjects under the mildly stressful conditions of the laboratory assessment. We have recently been funded to continue to follow this sample into school age and early adolescence. In addition to study of the longitudinal course of early onset mood disorders, another primary aim is to investigate the emotional developmental correlates of childhood mood disorders.

Another primary focus of the clinical and research program is the design and study of early intervention in mood disorders. A study of dyadic psychotherapy in preschool depression that targets emotion development will begin the fall of 2007. In addition, a new area of inquiry is the structural and functional neuroimaging of depressed preschoolers at school age in collaboration with Kelly Botteron, M.D. and Deanna Barch Ph.D.