Making a Difference

Humans are innately social beings and, in almost all cultures, vocal communication is the dominant mode for social interactions. It is, therefore, not surprising that voices became the most salient auditory signal. We often use voices to communicate verbal information...

Leandro Valiengo, University of Sao PauloWe are excited to share that the SIRS 2020 Research Fund Awardee, Leandro Valiengo, has agreed to a SIRS Q&A. View our questions and his answers below! What were you able to achieve with the SIRS Research Fund Award?  The...

Parsa Ravanfar, University of MelbourneI am a medical graduate and PhD candidate in neuropsychiatry, aiming to pursue a career in clinical psychiatry and neuroscience. During my clinical training, I learned about the large impact of schizophrenia on the individual and...

Cecilie K. Lemvigh, Copenhagen University HospitalMy interest in schizophrenia began already as a young university student and was motivated by a growing curiosity of how the human mind works. I am particularly interested in the developmental perspective on cognitive...

Maria Fransisca Alonso Sanchez, Western UniversityOne of the factors that has inspired me to work in psychosis and schizophrenia research is the challenge to improve the functional impairment of persons with schizophrenia and the current therapeutic approaches...

Teresa Vargas, Northwestern University Psychotic disorders are complex, debilitating, and not very well understood. Symptoms are often debilitating, and the gaps in care are astonishing. Psychosis and severe mental illness take a toll on both an individual, and...

Bobana Samardžija, University of RijekaMy interest in mental health research spawned from my surroundings - many of my friends and family are living with various mental illnesses, so I became very sensible to these issues from a young age. Every day we are making...

Luciana Diaz-Cutraro, Parc Sanitari Sant Joan de DéuResearch on schizophrenia: an adventure not to be missed. After finishing my residency in clinical psychology and training in psychological treatments for severe mental disorders, I decided to go behind the scenes of...

Vincent Paquin, McGill UniversityPeople have diverse experiences of psychosis. As a physician training in psychiatry, I am taught to consider multiple factors to tailor my clinical approach and the choice of treatment: the personal history and values of patients,...

Sandra Bucci, Cara Richardson, & Stephanie Allan (iCHARTS)A recent review by Torous and colleagues (2021) highlighted that detailed adverse events reporting is rare within the area of digital mental health, and as such, it is currently difficult to draw inferences...

Lynn DeLisi, Cambridge Health AlliancePsychiatry was the field of Medicine I chose after graduating medical school and performing field work in rural Northern New Mexico as a general practitioner for 3 years. Most of my patients would come into the clinic because of...

Sunny Tang, Feinstein for Medical ResearchAs a psychiatrist and scientist, I see the devastating toll taken by psychotic illnesses and the almost overwhelming gap between available and needed remedies. In my view, we can only achieve major leaps forward as a field by...

Sachin Nagendrappa, St. John's Medical College HospitalMy interest in psychiatry started in medical school. I was fortunate to get a teacher Dr. Sanjay, a Psychiatrist who sparked my interest in the field of psychosis. As Dr. Sanjay knew my interest in psychiatry, he...

Matcheri Keshavan, Harvard University I have always been interested in the nature of the self- questions such as who we are, and how an optimum knowledge of the self is critical for defining our health and happiness.  As I began learning to learn about the brain in...

Robin Emsley, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Stellenbosch UniversityI have had the privilege of spending the major part of my professional career involved in researching the illness called schizophrenia. After qualifying as I psychiatrist and opting for an...

E. Fuller TorreyWhen I was in college I was introduced to schizophrenia by my younger sister, Rhoda, who was so diagnosed at age 17. As a young psychiatrist I was introduced to infectious agents as a possible cause of schizophrenia by Dr. Carlton Gajdusek, who was...