Shaping the Developmental Course of Positive Affect Systems During Adolescence - A Focus on Depression and Treatment Innovation

Friday, April 6, 2012 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
1 CEU Credit is available for licensed mental health professionals.

Presented by Dr. Dana L. McMakin from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, this lecture will address key reward-related circuits that underlie positive emotions and appetitive motivations that undergo major functional and structural change around puberty, which for some youth appears to contribute to increasing problems with emotion and behavior, including depression. Although some changes in these circuits are hormonally triggered, the changes are strengthened or weakened by context and experience (e.g. social) during early puberty. Accordingly, early intervention during this window of neural plasticity carries potential to use experience to shape developing circuits in a positive direction, thus offsetting both short and long term developmental trajectories of depression.

Dr. McMakin will first outline this broad framework, and then present preliminary data regarding the nature of disruptions in positive emotions, appetitive motivations, and reward-related neural underpinnings among youth with depression (e.g. sustainability of positive affective states), the role of positive affective systems in the clinical course of depression among adolescents, and the early stages of developing a treatment module that aims to target key features of these systems.

The lecture will be held in the Psychology Building, Room 106 on April 6th from 3-4pm, and will be followed by a Wine and Cheese reception.

The UCF Psychology Clinic Advanced Training Services is approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education for psychologists. The UCF Psychology Clinic Advanced Training Services maintains responsibility of the program.
UCF Psychology Clinic Advanced Clinical Training Services is approved and reports CEUs to CEBroker.com for the following state licensing boards: Florida Board of Psychology, Florida Office of School Psychology, & Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling.
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