New HER Australia Centre for women's mental health education and research

Prof Jayashri Kulkarni leading a team meeting

HER Centre Australia, established as a formal Monash University Centre in 2022 stands for Health, Education, and Research in Women's Mental Health. For more information about HER Centre Australia, visit the HER Centre Australia website - www.monash.edu/her-centre

Save the date (20 October) for Professor Jayashri's public lecture to launch the centre and focus on why women's mental health education and research is so important.

Club Melbourne Fellowship award to Dr Gemma Sharp

Dr Gemma Sharp receiving her Club Melbourne Fellowship award

Congratulations to NHMRC Early Career Senior Research Fellow, Dr Gemma Sharp, who was awarded a Club Melbourne Fellowship (one of two in Victoria) on 18 August at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. 

Dr Sharp will use this fellowship to attend the International Society for Research on Internet Interventions 11th Scientific Meeting in Pittsburgh US in September 2022 where she will present an evaluation of the world's first positive body image chatbot - a project she has led since 2020. Owing to the success of the chatbot within Australia (over 20,000 users in its first year), the chatbot will be disseminated internationally in late 2022/early 2023.

Dr Sharp said, "It's a real honour to be awarded this fellowship, particularly with Central Clinical School having such a strong history of success in this fellowship program. It will be a thrill to present this research in-person at the ISRII conference and know that the chatbot will be available in the US shortly after!" 

Teasing out motivations for vegan and vegetarian diets and their relationship to disordered eating

In her 2022 3MT presentation, Ms Courtney McLean explains

her research into measures of eating disorder for the dietary
choice of veganism and vegetarianism. See video (2:49 mins)

It has long been thought that vegetarianism and veganism are related to an increased risk of disordered eating due to overlapping similarities in dietary rules. But previous research does not necessarily support this idea. 

Furthermore, previous literature has suggested eating disorder tools may be picking up on normal vegetarian and vegan-motivating food behaviours. This could result in inaccurate estimates of eating disorder prevalence in these populations.

Ms Courtney McLean is a PhD student in Central Clinical School’s Department of Psychiatry, whose research is on whether measures of eating disorder psychopathology are appropriate for vegans.

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp on her APS "Rising Star" award!

Dr Gemma Sharp is an APS "Rising Star"

Congratulations to Dr Gemma Sharp, who was awarded a prestigious international Association for Psychological Science (APS) Rising Star for 2021 Award, only one of five Australians and the only Monash University researcher to be recognised in this year's award.

The "Rising Star" award recognises early career researchers who have demonstrated excellence in publications, received significant recognitions, made significant discoveries, generated work with broad impact, and established an independent research career. Dr Sharp's pioneering work in the field of body image, particularly in her leadership of the development of KIT the body image chatbot, was instrumental in her award success.

Congrats to Runa Lindblom and Sin Ki Ng on their PhDs!

L-R: Runa Lindblom and Sin Ki Ng

Congratulations to Ms Runa Lindblom and Ms Sin Ki Ng on the award of their PhDs!

Runa's thesis is "Mitochondrial function in Diabetic Kidney Disease: Insights from targeting mitochondrial pore-forming cell death proteins". Runa was supervised by Associate Professor Melinda Coughlan and Professor Mark Cooper in CCS's Department of Diabetes, and Dr Gavin Higgins at the Cancer Council Victoria.

The surprising prevalence of eating disorders among older people

Dr Gemma Sharp in clinic with a patient

Eating disorders like anorexia and bulimia are often thought of as diseases that affect young people. However there's growing evidence that thousands of older Australians are also suffering silently. Older women are particularly susceptible, especially when their bodies are going changes like menopause or after pregnancy.
See Dr Gemma Sharp's 22 Jan 2020 7:30 Report interview at www.abc.net.au/7.30/the-surprising-prevalence-of-eating-disorders/11891422

What's on at CCS 19-23 June 2017

Maria Selvadurai is presenting on 20 June

Central Clinical School (CCS) has regular seminar series and postgraduate presentations. Event notices are posted on the CCS Events calendar. 

CCS staff and students can see details of both public and local events (including professional development courses, trade fairs and Graduate Research Student calendars) and deadlines, at the CCS intranet's Announcements page

See CCS seminar index: www.med.monash.edu.au/cecs/events/seminars.html

What's on at CCS 19-23 June 2017

Mon	19/06/2017	►	12:30	Alfred Psychiatry Grand Round: Dr Sebastian Radmanesh
Tue	20/06/2017	►	10:00	Department of Diabetes student journal club: Danny Thogerson
		►	11:00	PhD Mid Candidature review: Maria Selvadurai
Wed	21/06/2017	►	11:30	Immunology Seminar: Saeed Al-Rashdi
Thur	22/06/2017	►	11:30	Cutting Edge Journal Club: Kirsty Wilson
		►	12:00	The Alfred Grand Round: Keeping Children Safe

Save the date

• Tue 27/06/2017: CCS 3MT heat 
• Thu 13/07/2017: AMREP Bachelor of Medical Science (Honours) information evening
• Mon 31/07/2017: Translational Research symposium: RSVP

Tibolone could help perimenopausal depression

Tibolone can reduce depression symptoms in perimenopausal
women. Image: Menopause Living Today

by Anne Crawford 

Researchers from the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) have published a case study of a woman who unexpectedly suffered depression severe enough to cause her to attempt suicide twice.

Publication: Promising HIV cure drugs less effective on the virus in the brain

Dr Lachlan Gray, HIV researcher at the Burnet Institute

A Burnet Institute study has revealed treatments currently being trialed as a potential cure for HIV are less effective on the HIV virus in the brain compared to that found in the blood.

Published in the prestigious Nature journal, Molecular Psychiatry, the study tested a number of HIV ‘cure agents’ and found the two most promising of those, panobinostat and romidepsin, might not work effectively within the brain.

Professor Suresh Sundram: Psychiatric neuroscience. Find out more on 30 Sep 2015

Professor Suresh Sundram at Monash Health

The School of Clinical Sciences at Monash Health welcomes Professor Suresh Sundram, Unit Head for adult psychiatry at Monash Medical Centre. Prof Sundram will be speaking at the forthcoming 30 Sep Translational Research symposium hosted by Central Clinical School. See detail below.

Publication: Psychiatric patients and smoking bans - how do they feel about it?

In the present study, we examined the views and experiences of patients admitted to an acute psychiatry unit before and after the implementation of a totally smoke-free policy. Forty-six inpatients completed a questionnaire assessing their views before the smoking ban. Another 52 inpatients completed a questionnaire assessing their views and experiences after the smoking ban. Before the totally smoke-free policy, 69.6% smoked, with 67.7% smoking more when admitted to the psychiatry ward. Before the smoking ban, 54.4% reported that the totally smoke-free policy would be ‘negative’ or ‘very negative,’ and 30.5% said it would be ‘positive’ or ‘very positive.’

Recent publications: Psychiatry, sexual health, blood diseases, surgery and more

Prof Paul Myles, HOD Anaesthesia & Perioperative Medicine
with a colleague Dr Stefan Dielemann

Central Clinical School is research active with hundreds of publications each year. See below some recent publications in the subject specialisations of the school including anaesthesia, blood diseases, immunology, infectious diseases, medicine, psychiatry, sexual health and surgery.

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni: Psychiatry in the 21st century. Find out more on 30 Sep 2015

Professor Jayashri Kulkarni is a Professor of Psychiatry and the director of Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre (MAPrc) – one Australia’s largest and most innovative centres for clinical mental health research. She is internationally recognised for her expertise in the treatment of mental illness, particularly in women’s mental health. She has pioneered the use of estrogen as a treatment in schizophrenia and has developed many other innovative treatments for mental illnesses. Jayashri will be speaking at the forthcoming 30 Sept Translational Research symposium hosted by Central Clinical School. See detail below.

RRR community radio: "Radio Therapy", where doctors say what they really think

Radio Therapy

Explores the lighter, more eccentric side of medicine. A team of irreverent doctors lampoon sacred medical cows, and shed light on a range of medical and psychiatric conditions.
...with Dr Mal Practice, BabyDoc, McZiff, Dr Malice, Dr SK, Dr VooDoo, Dr Autonomy and The Tallman.
Broadcast 10 am Sundays on Community Radio Triple R, frequency 102.7FM. To listen to podcasts, see the Triple R website: http://www.rrr.org.au

Advances in methods to study the brain

17/12/2012 Dr Kate Hoy, MAPrc, describes how methods used to study the brain have advanced.
The Conversation
http://theconversation.edu.au/explainer-the-brain-11196
For more information about MAPrc's research, see www.maprc.org.au