Dr. Rao is Professor of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Dr. Rao also holds the Sarah M. and Charles E. Seay Chair in Child Psychiatry and is the Director of the Adolescent Mood and Addictive Disorders Program. Dr. Rao has been involved in child and adolescent mood and substance use disorders research for over 10 years, and her primary area of interest is adolescent depression and addictive disorders during the developmental transition to adult life. Three themes emerge from this research: (1) longitudinal clinical course of early-onset depression and substance use disorders, and impact of these disorders on adult emotional and social adjustment; (2) predictors of differential longitudinal clinical course, including clinical, neurobiological and psychosocial processes; and (3) developmental and ethnic influences on neurobiological processes associated with mood and substance use disorders. Dr. Rao receives funding from the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institute of Mental Health for this research.
Currently, Dr. Rao’s program of research is focused on identifying risk factors for smoking initiation, nicotine dependence and non-nicotine related substance use disorders in depressed and non-depressed adolescents. The risk factors of interest include neurobiogical (functional changes in the prefrontal cortex and related brain circuitry, and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity), neuro-cognitive (those involving executive function and decision-making processes) and environmental (including early life trauma, ongoing adversity/stressful life experiences and social support) factors. This research is an extension of Dr. Rao’s prior work, and it has shown that adolescence is a high-risk period for developing substance use disorders and that the presence of depression is associated with a more rapid progression from experimentation to pathological use of alcohol and other drugs during this developmental period. Moreover, depressed youth who develop alcohol/drug problems are at greater risk for developing recurrent depressive episodes and significant problems in multiple social domains compared with their counterparts who do not develop these problems.
In addition to the above-described studies on risk factors and pathophysiology of mood and substance use disorders, Dr. Rao is involved in intervention research. For instance, Dr. Rao is examining developmental differences in sleep and HPA regulation and how these developmental differences relate to antidepressant response in adolescent and adult depressed patients. Dr. Rao also is conducting a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of bupropion in depressed and non-depressed adolescent and young adult smokers. In addition to testing the efficacy of bupropion for smoking cessation in these populations, the study aims to identify potential predictors of differential response to bupropion treatment from a multi-dimensional perspective. The long-term goals of Dr. Rao’s research program are to develop and test more specific and effective treatments for adolescent depression in addition to developing preventive strategies for substance use disorders in depressed and non-depressed youth.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Child and Adolescent Mood Disorders
Child and Adolescent Substance Use Disorders
Neurobiology of Mood Disorders
Neurobiology of Substance Use Disorders
Treatment Trials for Adolescent Mood and Substance Use Disoders
RECENT PUBLICATIONS
Rao U, Ott GE, Lin K-M, Gertsik L, Poland RE, "Effect of bupropion on nocturnal urinary free cortisol and its association with antidepressant response." Journal of Psychiatric Research, 39:183-190, 2005
Schepis TS, Rao U, "The epidemiology and etiology of adolescent smoking." Current Opinion in Pediatrics, 17:607-612, 2005
Rao, U, "Links between depression and substance abuse in adolescents: neurobiological mechanisms" American Journal of Preventive Medicine, in press 2006
Rao U, "Development and natural course of pediatric depression: treatment implications." Clinical Neuropsychiatry, in press 2006
SIGNIFICANT PUBLICATIONS
Rao U, Hammen C, Daley SE, "Continuity of depression during the transition to adulthood: a 5-year longitudinal study of young women." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38:908-915, 1999
Rao U, Ryan ND, Birmaher B, Dahl RE, Rao R, Williamson DE, Perel J, "Factors associated with the development of substance use disorder in depressed adolescents." Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 38:1109-1117, 1999
Rao U, Dahl RE, Ryan ND, Birmaher B, Williamson DE, Giles DE, Rao R, Kaufman J, Nelson B, "The relationship between longitudinal clinical course and sleep and cortisol changes in adolescent depression." Biological Psychiatry, 40:474-484, 1996
Rao U, Lutchmansingh P, Poland RE, "Contribution of development to buspirone effects on REM sleep: a preliminary report." Neuropsychopharmacology, 22:440-446, 2000
Rao U, Dahl RE, Ryan ND, Birmaher B, Williamson DE, Rao R, Kaufman J, "Heterogeneity in EEG sleep findings in adolescent depression: unipolar versus bipolar clinical course." Journal of Affective Disorders, 70:273-280, 2002
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