VCU’s Center for Clinical and Translational Research has written a news article featuring Dr. Briana Mezuk. The article focusses on her exciting work on the bidirectional relationship between depression and diabetes.

GREMAP PhD student Natalie Bareis attended the 18th annual conference of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders in Amsterdam. At the conference, she gave a presentation titled “Client Centered Treatment to Optimize Psychiatric Medication Adherence: Empirically Identifying the Construct of Clinical Net Benefit”

This presentation demonstrates the concept of the client-centered conceptual framework Clinical Net Benefit, using the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD). This is a three dimensional model of individuals’ balance between tolerating: 1) psychiatric symptom reduction, 2) adverse effects from medications, and 3) overall functioning when taking psychiatric medications and resulting levels of adherence to those specific medications. Using latent class techniques to identify unique classes of Clinical Net Benefit can aid mental health practitioners in tailoring medication regimens by determining the class their client belongs to and the resulting medication regimens that have the highest adherence rates.

 

GREMAP is expanding west! Dr. Jeannie Concha is heading (back) to the University of Texas at El Paso to be an Assistant Professor in the College of Health Sciences in September.

Congratulations Jeannie!!

 

PREP student Joshua Montgomery presented his poster “Food insecurity and depression among adults with diabetes and pre-diabetes” at the 76th annual meeting of the American Diabetes Association in New Orleans, LA.

Congratulations Josh!

The VCU Council for Community Engagement has held an event celebrating community-engaged work, during which they celebrated the awarding of six community engagement grants to university researchers and programs. One of the grant recipients was GREMAP’s Dr. Briana Mezuk, who has recently received a grant fro the Council for Community Engagement for a community partnership with the YMCA of greater Richmond focussed on research and programs for diabetes management.

Dr. Mezuk has been elected as a Fellow in the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America. The Behavioral and Social Sciences section includes researchers from a variety of disciplines, who apply their diverse skillsets and backgrounds to the study of aging and mid to late life.

Drs. Mezuk and Concha have been awarded a grant from the VCU Council for Community Engagement to support their partnership with the YMCA of Greater Richmond Diabetes Programs. The project, called “Strengthening a community-engaged research partnership to promote diabetes self-management in Richmond” will support mixed-methods research on the challenges people face when participating in a diabetes class and the ways they overcome those challenges, as well as the development of a Community Advisory Board to guide broader diabetes research efforts.

Congratulations to GREMAP members Joshua Montgomery, Viktoryia Kalesnikava, Katherina Crawford, and Lauren Gray on the presentation of your posters at the VCU Division of Epidemiology Student Poster Showcase!