Dennis Charney

Dennis Charney
Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai | MSSM · Department of Psychiatry

Doctor of Medicine

About

1,003
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Introduction
Skills and Expertise

Publications

Publications (1,003)
Chapter
These are exciting times for psychiatry and clinical neuroscience. Our knowledge of basic brain function continues to increase at an accelerating pace as the experimental tools available to basic and clinical scientists become ever more powerful and penetrating. After decades of frustration and relatively slow progress, this explosion of knowledge...
Article
Full-text available
Healthcare workers face greater risks for mental health conditions and chronic stress due to the demanding nature of their roles. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these challenges and increased vulnerabilities to long-term mental health conditions. The present study adapts an existing resilience-based educational workshop program to address the ti...
Article
Background Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback is often performed with structured education, laboratory-based assessments, and practice sessions. It has been shown to improve psychological and physiological function across populations. However, a means to remotely use and monitor this approach would allow for wider use of this technique. Advan...
Preprint
BACKGROUND Heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback is often performed with structured education, laboratory-based assessments, and practice sessions. It has been shown to improve psychological and physiological function across populations. However, a means to remotely use and monitor this approach would allow for wider use of this technique. Advan...
Article
Full-text available
Objective: The construct of psychological resilience has received increasing attention in the mental health field. This article describes the development and initial validation of a novel self-report resilience scale, which addresses gaps in the resilience measurement literature by assessing thoughts and behaviors that help promote resilience rathe...
Chapter
In our modern times, it can feel like we have lost a sense of right and wrong, adding to feelings of fear and uncertainty. In this chapter we talk about how many of the resilient people we interviewed, including United States service members who were Vietnam War prisoners of war, used their moral compass to emotionally survive life-threatening situ...
Chapter
Life presents us all with challenges. Most of us at some point will be struck by major traumas such as the sudden death of a loved one, a debilitating disease, or a natural disaster. What differentiates us is how we respond. In this important book, three experts in trauma and resilience answer key questions such as What helps people adapt to life's...
Chapter
We have an amazing ability to change our brains based on what we choose to do, and scientists have called this “neuroplasticity.” When we throw ourselves into a new activity, whether it is learning to play chess, a musical instrument, or a competitive sport, we forge new connections in our brains. Resilience, too, often involves learning and sticki...
Chapter
One of the most effective resilience factors is all around us - the people in our lives. Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, which forced the world into lockdown, we found creative ways to reach out to one another. We describe the “tap code,” an ingenious way that Vietnam War POWs, often kept in isolation, supported each other and share informationa...
Chapter
Physical and mental health are inextricably linked. Research tells us that even a little bit of physical exercise in your daily routine can have an impact on your emotionall well-being and stress resilience. In this chapter we hear from military service members including Vietnam War POWs, who turned to increasingly strenous activity to boost their...
Chapter
Optimism is belief in a brighter future. In this chapter you will learn how optimistic people think and what they do. Optimists acknowledge the challenges they face but focus on what they can do to change their situation. You will read of how people we interviewed remained optimistic in very challenging situations. We share four ways to build optim...
Chapter
Our friend, colleague, and coauthor Dr. Steven Southwick passed away on April 20, 2022. In this epilogue devoted to his memory, we share Dr. Southwick's writings in the last months of his life focused on how he lived the very resilience factors that he spent decades studying. Steve's friends, family, and treating physicians share the impact he had...
Chapter
This chapter looks at the many different ways we think about resilience. We describe how we became interested in resilience as researchers and clinicians, and some of the events that tested our personal reslience. We introduce some of the essential lessons we have learned from resilient people over several decades of work. We also describe importan...
Chapter
While most of the chapters focus on a single resilience factor, many of the people we interviewed used more than one factor while coping with very challenging situations in their lives. You will see several examples of activities that combine many resilience factors, including volunteerism, athletic competition, and having a “survivor mission.” You...
Chapter
Many people turn to their religious beliefs and faith community for comfort when the worst happens. Even people who do not identify with a religion may rely on their spirituality, a sense of connection to something greater, to help them cope. From a healthcare chaplain responding to the COVID-19 pandemic to a mental health worker recovering from a...
Chapter
We know from decades of research that a key component of stress resilience is being flexible in how we think and how we manage our emotions. We profile individuals who showed exceptional flexibility, including Jerry White, who lost his leg to a landmine. We discuss two psychotherapies that teach flexibility: cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and a...
Chapter
Viktor Frankl, a psychiatrist who was a survivor of the Holocaust, has much to teach us about resilience. One key lesson from his work is that having a sense of meaning and purpose can fuel persistance and survival in some of life's most difficult situations. In this chapter you will learn about post-traumatic growth, the experience of positive lif...
Chapter
Feelings of fear can keep us safe, but they can also take over our lives, particularly after traumatic life events. In this chapter we describe the latest neurobiological research on how people learn and remember under stress. We tell you how to use these lessons to your advantage to more effectively face your fears. Above all else, resilient peopl...
Chapter
When we face challenging times, we think about people who have been there before and what they did that worked. We turn to role models, who can be found in many places, including our family, friendship group, educational and faith setting, or from history more broadly. We may have physical reminders around us, such as awards or photographs, of the...
Chapter
Life presents us all with challenges. Most of us at some point will be struck by major traumas such as the sudden death of a loved one, a debilitating disease, or a natural disaster. What differentiates us is how we respond. In this important book, three experts in trauma and resilience answer key questions such as What helps people adapt to life's...
Book
Life presents us all with challenges. Most of us at some point will be struck by major traumas such as the sudden death of a loved one, a debilitating disease, or a natural disaster. What differentiates us is how we respond. In this important book, three experts in trauma and resilience answer key questions such as What helps people adapt to life's...
Article
Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and disabling disorder, for which available pharmacotherapies have limited efficacy. The authors' previous proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial of single-dose intravenous ketamine infusion in individuals with PTSD showed significant and rapid PTSD symptom reduction 24 hours posti...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To assess whether an individual’s degree of psychological resilience can be determined from physiological metrics passively collected from a wearable device. Materials and Methods Data were analyzed in this secondary analysis of the Warrior Watch Study dataset, a prospective cohort of healthcare workers enrolled across 7 hospitals in New...
Article
Background: Cardiovascular disease remains the leading worldwide cause of mortality. There has been increased awareness of the impact of psychological health on cardiovascular disease. In particular, major depression has been linked to increased all-cause mortality, development of cardiovascular disease, and worse outcomes in those with existing c...
Article
Background: Though there is a growing body of research establishing a broad negative psychological impact of COVID-19 among healthcare workers, there are comparably fewer studies evaluating symptom presentation and clinical diagnoses among treatment-seeking healthcare workers. The present report seeks to fill this gap in the literature by establis...
Article
Objective: To longitudinally examine the prevalence and correlates of burnout in frontline healthcare workers (FHCWs) during COVID-19 in New York City. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 786 FHCWs at Mount Sinai Hospital was conducted during the initial COVID surge in April-May 2020 (T1) and November 2020-January 2021 (T2) to assess factors...
Article
This study investigated third year medical students' psychological well-being during clinical rotations at Mount Sinai hospitals in New York City during the COVID-19 pandemic. All students (n = 147) starting rotations (psychiatry, surgery, obstetrics-gynecology, neurology, pediatrics, and medicine) could participate in quarterly, online, anonymous...
Article
Full-text available
Background Stress exposure is a key risk factor for the development of major depressive disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder. Enhancing stress resilience in at-risk populations could potentially protect against stress-induced disorders. The administration of ketamine one week prior to an acute stressor prevents the development of stress-induc...
Article
Poor psychological health is associated with Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, cardiac syndrome X, coronary microcirculatory dysfunction, peripheral artery disease, or spontaneous coronary artery dissection. Data regarding pessimism, cardiovascular disease (CVD) events and mortality and all-cause mortality remained inconclusive. This systematic review and...
Article
Full-text available
Depression is disabling and highly prevalent. Intravenous (IV) ketamine displays rapid-onset antidepressant properties, but little is known regarding which patients are most likely to benefit, limiting personalized prescriptions. We identified randomized controlled trials of IV ketamine that recruited individuals with a relevant psychiatric diagnos...
Article
Full-text available
Stress exposure is one of the greatest risk factors for psychiatric illnesses, including major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Enhancing stress resilience could potentially protect against the development of stress-induced psychiatric disorders, yet no resilience-enhancing pharmaceuticals have been developed to d...
Article
Full-text available
For medical students first entering the clinical space in July 2020, the unique challenges related to the coronavirus pandemic threatened to amplify the psychological distress associated with clerkship rotations. This study aimed to characterize the mental health of third-year medical students starting clinical clerkships in the midst of a pandemic...
Article
Objective Frontline healthcare workers (FHCWs) responding to the COVID-19 pandemic develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms. Such symptoms are associated with burnout, occupational and relational difficulties. In the current study, we examined the prospective assoc...
Article
Full-text available
Objective To determine whether a machine learning model can detect SARS-CoV-2 infection from physiological metrics collected from wearable devices. Materials and Methods Health care workers from 7 hospitals were enrolled and prospectively followed in a multicenter observational study. Subjects downloaded a custom smart phone app and wore Apple Wat...
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Full-text available
Despite experiencing a significant trauma, only a subset of World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Identification of biomarkers is critical to the development of targeted interventions for treating disaster responders and potentially preventing the development of PTSD in this population....
Article
Background The effect of psychological health on cardiovascular disease is an underemphasized yet important area of study. Understanding the relationship between these two entities may allow for more comprehensive care of those with cardiovascular disease. The primary objective of this meta-analysis is to evaluate the relationship between optimism...
Article
Full-text available
Objectives We sought to describe the course and correlates of psychological distress in frontline healthcare workers (FHCWs) during the COVID-19 pandemic in New York City (NYC). Methods A prospective cohort study of FHCWs at the Mount Sinai Hospital was conducted during the initial 2020 surge (T1) and 7 months later (T2). Psychological distress [i...
Article
Full-text available
Ketamine has rapid and sustained antidepressant effects in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD). However, the underlying mechanisms of action are not well understood. There is increasing evidence that TRD is associated with a pro-inflammatory state and that ketamine may inhibit inflammatory processes. We thus investigated whole blood...
Preprint
Full-text available
Importance: Passive and non-invasive identification of SARS-CoV-2 infection remains a challenge. Widespread use of wearable devices represents an opportunity to leverage physiological metrics and fill this knowledge gap. Objective: To determine whether a machine learning model can detect SARS-CoV-2 infection from physiological metrics collected fro...
Article
The present article comprises a one-year retrospective review of the efforts of the Mount Sinai Center for Stress, Resilience and Personal Growth, an initiative to support the resilience and well-being of health care workers that was founded amid the first peak of the pandemic in New York in 2020. Specific offerings to date have included evidence-b...
Article
Promising initial data indicate that the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine may be beneficial in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we explore the neural correlates of ketamine-related changes in PTSD symptoms, using a rich battery of functional imaging data (two emotion-processing tasks and one task-free s...
Preprint
Full-text available
Promising initial data indicate that the glutamate N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine may be beneficial in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Here, we explore the neural correlates of ketamine-related changes in PTSD symptoms, using a rich battery of functional imaging data (two emotion-processing tasks and one task-free s...
Preprint
Full-text available
Despite experiencing a significant trauma, only a subset of World Trade Center (WTC) rescue and recovery workers developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Identification of biomarkers is critical to the development of targeted interventions for treating disaster responders and potentially preventing the development of PTSD in this population....
Article
Objective To identify specific thresholds of daily electronic health record (EHR) time after work and daily clerical time burden associated with burnout in clinical faculty. Materials and Methods We administered an institution-wide survey to faculty in all departments at Mount Sinai Health System from November 2018 to February 2019. The Maslach Bu...
Article
Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor antagonist with rapid antidepressant effects. Studies suggest that inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis plays a role in the mechanism of action of ketamine. This randomized, placebo-controlled study investigated whether co-administration of sodium nitroprusside, a nitric oxide donor, compared to placebo,...
Preprint
BACKGROUND The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased strain on health care systems and negative psychological effects on health care workers. This is anticipated to result in long term negative mental health effects on the population, with health care workers (HCWs) representing a particularly vulnerable group. The scope of the COVID-19 pande...
Article
Full-text available
Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased strain on health care systems and negative psychological effects on health care workers. This is anticipated to result in long term negative mental health effects on the population, with health care workers (HCWs) representing a particularly vulnerable group. The scope of the COVID-19 pan...
Article
Objective: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic and disabling disorder, for which available pharmacotherapies have limited efficacy. The authors' previous proof-of-concept randomized controlled trial of single-dose intravenous ketamine infusion in individuals with PTSD showed significant and rapid PTSD symptom reduction 24 hours posti...
Article
This article is available free at the journal website: https://www.psychiatrist.com/JCP/article/_layouts/ppp.psych.controls/BinaryViewer.ashx?Type=Article&Article=/JCP/article/Pages/psychological-resilience-frontline-health-care-workers-covid.aspx
Preprint
Full-text available
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric condition occurring in individuals exposed to trauma. The study of PTSD is complicated by highly heterogeneous presentations and experiences of trauma. Here, we studied genetic correlates of PTSD and resilience among a group of responders to the World Trade Center (WTC) 9/11/2001 a...
Article
Full-text available
Background COVID-19 has infected millions of people worldwide and is responsible for several hundred thousand fatalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated thoughtful resource allocation and early identification of high-risk patients. However, effective methods to meet these needs are lacking. Objective The aims of this study were to analyze...
Article
Full-text available
Background: Since about one-third of patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) do not respond adequately to available antidepressants, there is a need for treatments based on novel mechanisms of action. Neuropeptide Y (NPY), a normal brain constituent, is reduced in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with MDD and post-traumatic stress disorder an...
Preprint
BACKGROUND COVID-19 has infected millions of people worldwide and is responsible for several hundred thousand fatalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated thoughtful resource allocation and early identification of high-risk patients. However, effective methods to meet these needs are lacking. OBJECTIVE The aims of this study were to analyze...
Article
Full-text available
This review aims to synthesise a large pre-clinical and clinical literature related to a hypothesised role of the locus coeruleus norepinephrine system in responses to acute and chronic threat, as well as the emergence of pathological anxiety. The locus coeruleus has widespread norepinephrine projections throughout the central nervous system, which...
Chapter
A serious lack of effective pharmacotherapeutic interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) raises the urgent need for the development of novel treatments. Ketamine—a noncompetitive glutamate N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist in use for decades as an anesthetic and analgesic agent—has more recently been demonstrated to have...
Article
The discovery of the strikingly rapid and robust antidepressant effects of r/s-ketamine for the treatment of antidepressant-resistant symptoms of depression has led to new insights into the biology of antidepressants and the FDA approval of its s-isomer, Esketamine (Spravato), the first mechanistically new treatment for depression in over 60 years....
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Full-text available
The locus coeruleus (LC) has a long-established role in the attentional and arousal response to threat, and in the emergence of pathological anxiety in pre-clinical models. However, human evidence of links between LC function and pathological anxiety has been restricted by limitations in discerning LC with current neuroimaging techniques. We combin...
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Full-text available
Mounting evidence supports the rapid anti-depressant efficacy of the N-methyl-d-aspartate receptor antagonist, ketamine, for treating major depressive disorder (MDD); however, its neural mechanism of action remains poorly understood. Subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) hyper-activity during rest has been consistently implicated in the patho...
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Full-text available
Background Digital therapeutics such as cognitive–emotional training have begun to show promise for the treatment of major depressive disorder. Available clinical trial data suggest that monotherapy with cognitive–emotional training using the Emotional Faces Memory Task is beneficial in reducing depressive symptoms in patients with major depressive...
Article
Full-text available
Recent scientific and technological advances have brought us closer to being able to apply a true biopsychosocial approach to the study of resilience in humans. Decades of research have identified a range of psychosocial protective factors in the face of stress and trauma. Progress in resilience research is now advancing our understanding of the bi...
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Full-text available
Michael F. Grunebaum's name was misspelled/misstated as "Gruenbaum M.F." in the original Article. This has now been updated in the HTML and PDF versions of this Article.
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Full-text available
Ketamine is the first exemplar of a rapid-acting antidepressant with efficacy for treatment-resistant symptoms of mood disorders. Its discovery emerged from a reconceptualization of the biology of depression. Neurobiological insights into ketamine efficacy shed new light on the mechanisms underlying antidepressant efficacy.
Article
The N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist ketamine is associated with rapid but transient antidepressant effects in patients with treatment resistant unipolar depression (TRD). Based on work suggesting that ketamine and lithium may share overlapping mechanisms of action, we tested lithium compared to placebo as a continuation strategy fol...
Article
Full-text available
Growing evidence suggests that the glutamatergic modulator ketamine has rapid antidepressant effects in treatment-resistant depressed subjects. The anticholinergic agent scopolamine has also shown promise as a rapid-acting antidepressant. This study applied genome-wide markers to investigate the role of genetic variants in predicting acute antidepr...