By Eric Vohr
Johns Hopkins Medicine

The Johns Hopkins Mood Disorders Center, a newly organized entity in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the School of Medicine, is presenting a panel of prominent faculty to discuss the latest research and clinical findings on depression and bipolar disorders. The discussion will take place from 8 to 11 a.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at the Dana Center in Washington, D.C.

The event, hosted by William Safire, chairman of the Dana Foundation and a columnist for The New York Times Magazine, is titled Depression and Bipolar Disorders in the 21st Century: A Clinical and Research Update. The panel discussion will highlight the Mood Disorders Center's current activities and future plans, as well as address psychiatric issues that are making headlines. Specific discussion topics are "Depression and Bipolar Disorders: Pressing Issues in the 21st Century," "Good Drugs, Bad Prescriptions," "Mood Disorders and Creativity" and "From Molecules to Moods."

More than 20 million Americans suffer from depression or bipolar disorder; suicide, which kills 30,000 people in the United States each year, is the third leading cause of death in young people. Depression and bipolar disorder are implicated in the overwhelming majority of suicides. The World Health Organization estimates that by 2020 depression will be the second leading cause of "lost years of healthy life" worldwide. The worldwide economic cost of depression is estimated at $80 billion a year.

Johns Hopkins faculty to be featured at the event are J. Raymond DePaulo Jr., co-director of the Mood Disorders Center, Henry Phipps Professor and director of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and psychiatrist in chief at The Johns Hopkins Hospital; Kay Redfield Jamison, professor of psychiatry, co-director of the center, recipient of a MacArthur award, co-author of the standard medical text on manic-depressive illness and author of An Unquiet Mind; James Potash, assistant professor, co-director of the Mood Disorders Program and director of the research component; and Karen L. Swartz, assistant professor, co-director of the Mood Disorders Program, director of the clinical program, founder of the Adolescent Depression Awareness Program and co-director for residency education and for the Women's Mood Disorders Clinic.

The Dana Foundation is a private philanthropic foundation with principal interests in science, health and education. Its current areas of emphasis are in neuroscience and immunology research, and the training of arts educators. Dana Press, a division of the foundation, publishes health and science books about the brain for the general reader.

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