Pittsburgh Mind-Body Center

4:00 pm -  5:00 pm, Location:  TBA

"Sweet and Low:  The Relationship between Diabetes and Depression"

Dominique L, Musselman, M.D. M.S., Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences,
Emory University School of Medicine

A rapidly accumulating literature suggests that depression constitutes a major risk factor in the development of type 2 diabetes, and accelerates the onset of diabetes complications and death. Although neurometabolic alterations exist in depressed patients related to insulin resistance, there are few randomized, controlled studies of the treatment of depression in patients with diabetes.  Future research will confirm whether clinical response to psychotherapy and/or psychopharmacologic treatment of depressed, diabetic patients, improves glucose control, encourages compliance with diabetes treatment, and perhaps even increases longevity.

Dr. Musselman received her MD from Oral Roberts University School of Medicine.  Following a psychiatry residency at Emory University, she was awarded a 3-year NIDDK research fellowship in Neuroendocrinology.  In 1997, she received a Mentored Scientist Development Award from the NIH to continue her investigation of depression as an independent risk factor for heart disease. During this time, she also earned an MS in Clinical Research from Emory University. In 2002, she received funding to continue her investigations of platelet dysfunction in patients with depressive disorders, and most recently, funding to investigate the prevalence, biology, and treatment of depression in urban African Americans with type 2 diabetes. She has received the Junior Faculty “Outstanding Educator” award from Emory’s Department of Psychiatry (1997), the Gerard Klerman Young Investigator Award for her contributions to the understanding of mood disorders in the medically ill (1999), and the Herbert Weiner Early Career Award for contributions to psychosomatic medicine (2003). Dr. Musselman’s publications focus upon the pathophysiology underlying the major mood disorders, and the impact of psychiatric disorders upon health and human behavior.