Board of Councilors

Professor of Psychiatry, Killam Chair in Mood Disorders, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada As a clinician-scientist for almost 20 years, I intend to promote and support closer links between research and clinical practice. There already exists a large body of evidence on mood disorders informing clinicians about rational selection of treatments, appropriate long term monitoring, or assessment of prognosis and outcome among others. Such data need to be transferred to the clinical care. At the same time, more research is needed in areas such as treatment of refractory bipolar disorder or alleviating the cognitive impairment observed in some patients. Another priority is advocacy for availability of safe and inexpensive treatments especially in low- and middle-income countries. Finally, as a member of the Canadian, American, and European Colleges of Neuropsychopharmacology (CCNP, ACNP, and ECNP) as well as the International Group for Study of Lithium (IGSLi), I wish to promote closer cooperation of these groups as well as represent the Society interests.

It is a great honor and opportunity for me to contribute to ISBD as a member of Board of Councilors. One of my aims during the coming two years would be to help establish multinational collaborations. Also I would like to contribute to advancement of teaching and training in bipolar disorders at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I look forward to working with this excellent group.

I have been actively involved in research on the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder for the past ten years. I have greatly enjoyed contributing to the Society as a member of the Editorial Board for Bipolar Disorders. For the past 3 years I have served as the journal’s Field Editor for Cognitive Neuroscience, which has been a wonderful opportunity to further the growth and scientific excellence of the journal. In 2006 I was very fortunate to receive a Samuel Gershon Young Investigator award from the ISBD, and ever since then have greatly enjoyed attending and participating in the ISBD meetings, given the high quality of the scientific programs. I am honored to have the opportunity to actively contribute as a member of the ISBD Board of Councilors, so as to assist in the further development and growth of the Society. In particular I believe I can contribute to the ISBD mission by promoting international collaborations on intermediate traits (endophenotypes) associated with genetic vulnerability to bipolar illness. The field is moving towards ever-larger collaborative studies, and I believe the ISBD can play a critical role in fostering such collaborations.

I am greatly honored to be a council member of the ISBD and hope that I can make a valuable contribution to this important organization during my term as a council member and into the future. I have been delighted by the achievements of the ISBD and fully support its direction and mission. I have over 20 years of research experience, ranging from laboratory based psychopharmacology research involving rats, cells, enzymes and analytical techniques, through to clinical trials, observational studies and other non-laboratory techniques. I hope that my skills and experience and knowledge of the research community be will of benefit to the ISBD at an international level as well as building its profile in the Australasian region.

Ellen Frank is Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Professor of Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Director of the Depression and Manic Depression Prevention program at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. Frank and her colleagues have developed and tested a series of adaptations of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) including maintenance IPT, brief IPT, and interpersonal and social rhythm therapy for the treatment of bipolar disorder which has now been adapted for both group and individual treatment of both bipolar and unipolar disorders. She recently completed a study with researchers at the University of Pisa, Italy, aimed at achieving a better understanding of the clinical importance of subsyndromal mood and anxiety conditions and their impact on the outcome of interpersonal psychotherapy and SSRI for depression. She is currently working with colleagues throughout France to establish a network of expert centers for the treatment of bipolar disorder.An expert in mood disorders and their treatment, Frank was Chair of the Food and Drug Administration Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Panel. She also is a former member of the U.S. National Advisory Mental Health Council. She currently serves on the Mood Disorders Workgroup of the American Psychiatric Association Task Force on DSM-5 and is an Honorary Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. In 1999, Dr. Frank was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine.Dr. Frank has published over 400 peer-reviewed publications in psychiatric journals, many of them focused on bipolar disorders.

It will be a great pleasure and honor for me to be nominated for ISBD Board of Councilors. I will do my efforts for the contribution to ISBD.As we all know, concerns and interests on bipolar disorder are rapidly growing in Korea, in line with many other countries all over the world. My activities in the fields of bipolar disorder include specialized clinical practice on bipolar disorder, research on phenomenology of bipolar disorder and its related mental illnesses and genetics on bipolar disorder, and education for graduate and post-graduate students and psychiatric residents.I have been serving as president of ISBD Korea, Korean chapter of ISBD, which was established on 14th, June, 2010. Apart from our continuous academic activities such as monthly and annual conferences, ISBD Korea has ongoing cooperative academic relationships with other bodies of psychiatric professionals, such as Korean Neuropsychiatric Association, Korean College for Neuropsychopharmacology, East Asian Bipolar Forum, and Asian Network for Bipolar Disorders.I would like to promote the development of the bipolar disorder society not only in Korea but also in other Asian countries as an ISBD member of the ISBD Board of Councilors. Especially, I will do my best for the successful meeting of ISBD 2014 Seoul.

I am delighted to have been nominated for the 2012 ISBD Board of Councilors. I have been involved in research and clinical assistance in BD field for the last decade and I see a great opportunity to improve collaboration networks and advance the field through ISBD. I also plan to work on increasing the participation of Latin America branches of ISBD in the international society. I have participated in the Brazilian Association (named ABTB) as a treasurer and the initiative has been an important booster to research in BD.

I am honored to be elected for the ISBD council. As the coordinator of a leading mood disorders program focused on bioethics and genetics related projects, I believe that continuing with the compromise in education and investigation, the creation of new regional chapters and the promotion of international relationships is the key to constant progress of knowledge in the field of Bipolar disorder.

It is a great honor for me to be elected to the Board of Councilors of ISBD. I want to thank you on behalf of Society for Bipolar Disorders of Turkey and myself. This will give me the chance to develop the relationship not only between ISBD and Turkey but also Mediterranean, Eastern European and Middle Eastern countries as well. I hope the 5th Biennial Conference of the ISBD in Istanbul will be a good media opportunity.I have been working on both clinical and basic research projects on bipolar disorder for more than 20 years. I served as the president of Mood Disorders Section of Psychiatric Association in Turkey, chairman of mood disorders clinic and taught residents working on the subject. I hope my experience on these subjects will help me serving ISBD as a councilor.My goals during my term will be to: a) promote scientific and clinical collaboration between colleagues in neighboring countries, who are dedicated to bipolar disorder, b) present ISBD to the raising generation of bipolar disorder clinicians and researchers, and c) find easier ways to enhance the postgraduate education quality in some regional countries with such needs.

It is an honor to be a nominated for the Board of Councilors of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD) by Dr. Charles Bowden and Dr. Mauricio Tohen, who I have worked closely with for several years. I have been actively involved in the research and treatment of patients with bipolar illness, as well training the next generation of clinicians in the assessment and treatment of bipolar disorders for the past 10 years. We have made significant advances in our understanding of the phenomenology of bipolar disorders in the past decade. However, we continue this has not translated into more effective treatments or better outcomes for our patients.I have been Editor-in-Chief of the ISBD Global Newsletter for the past year and have been contributing to the newsletter through literature reviews for several years. I have also been a member of the ISBD Training & Education Committee for several years. My involvement in these roles has made me aware of the different components of the organization which will help me be effective if elected to the ISBD Board of Councilors. I am committed to the mission of the ISBD and will employ my time and energy to further that mission. My efforts will be devoted to creating an awareness of the missions of the society, which will expand the society’s reach as well as help propagate its mission within both the provider as well as the consumer communities. I will also work to enhance the opportunities for training of clinicians and researchers with an interest in bipolar disorder through scholarship grants, travel grants and fellowships.

I am honored and delighted to serve on the Board of Councilors of the International Society for Bipolar Disorders (ISBD). I am currently leading an independent research team in Buenos Aires, Argentina. From this perspective we can appreciate the support of a society like the ISBD to help us with promoting, divulgating, and sharing the scientific efforts made in peripheral sites as ours.I have been a very committed member of the ISBD since its foundation. I hope that I can help make ISBD more accessible within South America, a continent where mental illnesses reached, according to the WHO, the status of a pandemic.
Recently, the ISBD has promoted taskforces which developed critical documents on diagnosis, nomenclature and treatment-safety of bipolar disorders. I think one of the current challenges of the Board of Councilors is to encourage the development of newer guides and enhance the accessibility, dissemination and compliance of the already existing ones.One of our next challenges is to generate greater awareness on the health significance of bipolar disorders. In the next few years, it will become necessary to test prevention models aimed to reduce the impact of these disorders. In order to fulfill these challenges, it will be essential to have the political and technical support of our society.Finally, our society will only be as strong as the strength of our relationship with people affected by bipolar disorders. Thus, one of my great interests in becoming part of the Board of Councilors is to promote such a partnership.

As a second term ISBD Board of Councilors member, I will continue to promote awareness about ISBD among Asian psychiatrists and mental health professionals, especially those who have special interest in bipolar disorder. I will continue to foster research in bipolar disorder. I will survey bipolar depression among Asian countries. This research project will also serve as a role model for international collaboration among Asian psychiatrists. In terms of promoting awareness of this condition in Asian society at large, I will encourage ISBD to work with the Asian Network of Bipolar Disorder (ANBD) for printing pamphlets for public in many Asian languages. All of these activities should help improve the quality of life for those with bipolar disorder and their significant others.I will launch the first South East Asian Bipolar Forum (SEABiF) meeting during the WPA Regional Meeting in Bali, Indonesia during 13-15 September 2012.We will also announce for the ISBD meeting in Seoul in 2014 at our forum meeting. The members of SEABiF are from 5 countries: Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and the Philippines. We hope that members from other countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos will join us later.