Abstract of talk
Depression and anxiety are the most common and disabling mental illnesses and typically first develop in adolescence and early adulthood. However, the causes of these mental illnesses are poorly understood. In Part A, I will discuss personality traits as one widely-studied vulnerability factor for depression and anxiety. In Part B, I will discuss mood and anxiety disorders in youth more generally. For example, I will talk about how common they are, why they might tend to develop in adolescence, what environmental, psychological, and biological factors put individuals at risk for them, what mood and anxiety disorders look like in youth, and psychotherapeutic approaches to their treatment.
Speaker profile
Dr. Kopala-Sibley completed his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at McGill University and post-doctoral fellowship at Stony Brook University.
His research pertains to the influence of developmental experiences (parenting in particular, but also peers and life stress in general) on change over time in personality and brain functioning in youth, and how these factors interact to influence risk for depressive and anxiety disorders. Given that having experienced a prior episode of depression or anxiety is one of the strongest predictors of experiencing a subsequent episode, he is particularly interested in understanding how developmental experiences, personality, and brain functioning predict the first onset of internalizing psychopathology. He also aims to examine how these factors interact with other biological aspects of risk for internalizing psychopathology, such as candidate genes, markers of inflammation, and neuroendocrine functioning (e.g., cortisol).
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