Boston CIDAR Study
Longitudinal Assessment and Monitoring of Clinical Status and Brain Function in Adolescents and Adults

Raquelle Mesholam-Gately, PhD

headShot

Contact

rmeshola@bidmc.harvard.edu

Biography

Raquelle Mesholam-Gately, Ph.D. is the Chief Neuropsychologist for the Commonwealth Research Center at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center Division of Public Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, and she holds a full-time faculty appointment as an Instructor in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School (HMS). Dr. Mesholam-Gately received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology, with an emphasis in Neuropsychology, from Drexel University. She completed her predoctoral training at the University of Virginia Medical Center and her postdoctoral training in adult neuropsychology at The Cambridge Health Alliance of HMS.

Research Summary

Dr. Mesholam-Gately's research pursuits have focused on neurocognition and the link between olfaction and the functioning of the brain's reward system in schizophrenia-spectrum illnesses, particularly those dually diagnosed with substance use disorders.

Dr. Mesholam-Gately's knowledge of and interest in the study of schizophrenia and olfaction was cultivated during graduate school and through her authorship on several publications, abstracts and poster presentations, including an article in the Neurobiology of Aging, Olfactory identification deficit in elderly schizophrenia and Alzheimer's Disease (1997), and a first-author publication in the Archives of Neurology, Olfaction in neurodegenerative disease: A meta-analysis of olfactory functioning in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases (1998). She received a NARSAD Young Investigator Award in 7/03 entitled, "Schizophrenia and comorbid alcohol/ substance use disorder (A/SUD): Clozapine, olfaction and reward." Through this award, she has been able to study the functioning of the brain's reward system in schizophrenia, using olfactory stimuli as neurobehavioral probes to further elucidate the basis of comorbid A/SUD in this population. Of most interest in her preliminary analyses is the finding that clozapine (CLOZ) seems to be strengthening the experience of rewarding olfactory stimuli. These intriguing findings in men provided the impetus for her plan to apply for a grant to expand the paradigm to women in order to gain a better understanding of gender differences and the treatment needs of women with schizophrenia. She has also recently co-authored three manuscripts related to this research area.

Dr. Mesholam-Gately has been involved in several multi-site studies that included a focus on neurocognition in schizophrenia, including: (1) "Measurement and Treatment Research to Improve Cognition in Schizophrenia (MATRICS): Psychometric validation study," (2) "Treatment Units for Research of Neurocognition in Schizophrenia" (TURNS) and (3) "Mental Illness Neuroscience Discovery Institute (MIND) Clinical Imaging Consortium: A joint study of first episode and chronic schizophrenia." Her involvement in these studies, as well as her interest in better understanding the trajectory of neuropsychological deficits in schizophrenia have lead to her preparation of a meta-analysis of neurocognitive findings in first-episode schizophrenia.

Selected Publications

  1. Moberg PJ, Doty RL, Mahr RN, Mesholam RI, Arnold SE, Turetsky BI, Gur RE. Olfactory identification deficit in elderly schizophrenia and Alzheimer's Disease. Neurobiology of Aging 1997;18(2):163-7.
  2. Mesholam RI, Moberg PJ, Mahr RN, Doty RL. Olfaction in neurodegenerative disease: A meta-analysis of olfactory functioning in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Archives of Neurology 1998;55:84-90.
  3. Green AI, Keung WM, Chau DT, Dawson R, Mesholam RI, Schildkraut JJ. Clozapine reduces alcohol drinking in Syrian golden hamsters. Psychiatry Research 2004;128:9-20.
  4. Mesholam-Gately RI, Seidman LJ. Genetics and family influences on olfaction: A focus in schizophrenia. In: Brewer W, Castle D, Pantelis C, editors. Olfaction and the Brain. New York: Cambridge University Press; 2006. p. 167-82.
  5. Nuechterlein, K.H., Green, M.F., Kern, R.S., Baade, L.E., Barch, D.M., Cohen, J.D., Essock, S., Fenton, W.S., Frese, F.J., Gold, J.M., Goldberg, T., Heaton, R.K., Keefe, R.S.E., Kraemer, H., Mesholam-Gately, R., Seidman, L.J., Stover, E., Weinberger, D.R., Young, A.S., Zalcman, S., Marder, S.R. The MATRICS consensus cognitive battery: Part 1. Test selection, reliability, and validity. American Journal of Psychiatry (In Press).
  6. Kern, R.S., Nuechterlein, K.H., Green, M.F., Baade, L.E., Fenton, W.S., Gold, J.M., Keefe, R.S.E., Mesholam-Gately, R., Mintz, J., Seidman, L.J., Stover, E., Marder, S.R. The MATRICS consensus cognitive battery: Part 2. Co-norming and standardization. American Journal of Psychiatry (In Press).
  7. Green, M.F., Nuechterlein, K.H., Kern, R.S., Baade, L.E., Fenton, W.S., Gold, J.M., Keefe, R.S.E., Mesholam-Gately, R., Mintz, J., Seidman, L.J., Stover, E., Marder, S.R. Functional co-primary measures for clinical trials in schizophrenia: Results from the MATRICS psychometric and standardization study. American Journal of Psychiatry (In Press).
Last updated December 8, 2008.