Schizophrenia Daily News Blog

MIT prize for Dr. Rapoport

It was announced in a press release by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that the McGovern Institute is to Present the 2005 Edward M. Scolnick Prize in Neuroscience to Dr. Judith Rapoport the well known researcher focused on childhood psychiatric disease, including childhood-onset schizophrenia.

As part of the day's activities, Dr. Rapoport will present a public lecture on the MIT Campus from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. pm April 14th. The lecture will be hosted by the McGovern Institute and is free and open to the public.

   Dr. Rapoport was selected to receive the 2005 Edward M. Scolnick Prize for her groundbreaking studies on the neurobiological basis for mental illness in children, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), and Childhood Onset Schizophrenia. Her work has helped usher in a new era in the application of modern neuroscience approaches to the study of mental illness in children.

   Dr. Rapoport was a pioneer in studying the pathophysiology of ADHD and neuropharmacological approaches to its treatment, and she was the first to discover that some childhood psychiatric symptoms result from autoimmune reactions to streptococcal infection, the first to establish the link between obsessive-compulsive behaviors in children and OCD in adults, and the first to use longitudinal magnetic resonance imaging to uncover developmental abnormalities in brain size and structure in children with schizophrenia. Her longitudinal studies of brain development in healthy children have revealed that some brain structures continue to change and do not reach maturity until late adolescence. She is well known for her popular book on OCD, "The Boy Who Couldn 't Stop Washing," which was on The New York Times Bestseller list for 10 weeks, and which brought new hope to families with affected children.

   About the McGovern Institute at MIT

   The McGovern Institute at MIT is a research and teaching institute committed to advancing human understanding and communications. Additional information is available at: http://web.mit.edu/mcgovern/

For more information on Childhood Onset Schizophrenia, and Dr. Rapoport's work