Brooklyn Resident Scholars Honored During BPS Annual Competition and 75th Anniversary

The Brooklyn Psychiatric Society (BPS) celebrated its 75th Anniversary in May with another round of its annual resident poster competition—now emulated by other district branches—and the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to APA President Ramaswamy Viswanathan, M.D., Dr.Med.Sc. (Dr. Vis), who founded the competition 32 years ago.

At the event this year, which took place at Maimonides Medical Center just days before the APA Annual Meeting in Manhattan, Viswanathan previewed the remarks on lifestyle psychiatry he would make at the Opening Session of the APA meeting. He emphasized the six pillars of lifestyle medicine—regular exercise, a plant-based diet with minimal or no processed foods, restorative sleep, stress reduction, avoidance of harmful substances, and positive social connectedness—and said 80% of health care spending in this country is for the treatment of conditions attributable to unhealthy lifestyle choices.

Viswanathan also noted that he was the only APA president elected from Brooklyn. “For a borough with two-and-a-half million people, we need to change that,” he said.

He was president of the district branch when he founded the first annual BPS Resident Scholarly Presentations Competition in 1992. The competition brings together resident scholars from psychiatry training programs at four Brooklyn hospitals—Brookdale University Hospital Medical Center, Maimonides Medical Center, SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and Interfaith Medical Center. The residents give poster and oral presentations on a variety of research projects, and winners are selected by a panel of research experts.

“It has become even more successful than I envisioned when I came up with this idea to promote scholarly development among our trainees,” Viswanathan said. “The residency programs look forward to the event every year and have sometimes hired faculty to mentor residents in their projects. It’s made it possible for psychiatrists in the community to interact with residents at a particular institution, and the participation of trainees has strengthened the district branch.”

He has also invited resident representatives from each of the four Brooklyn psychiatry training programs to participate in the BPS executive council.

At the event at Maimonides this year, Viswanathan received a Lifetime Achievement Award presented to him by Maria Bodic, M.D., staff psychiatrist at Maimonides Medical Center, and BPS President Tolu Olupona, M.D. (Bodic took over coordinating and moderating the annual event when Viswanathan stepped down last year.)

“The Brooklyn Psychiatric Society poster session is a great opportunity for trainees in the psychiatry residency programs in Brooklyn to come together, network with each other, and showcase their scholarly work,” said Olupona. “Dr. Vis has been a mentor to many—including myself—and has provided visionary leadership and service to the BPS for over 30 years. We salute his many years of dedication to our organization.”

First-prize winner in the oral presentation competition was Edoardo Vattimo, M.D., a PGY-3 trainee at SUNY Downstate, for his work titled “The Neurocircuitry of Goal-Directed Behavioral Control in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).” Vattimo’s research demonstrated that differences between patients and controls in connectivity of a specific neural circuit involved in goal-directed behavior are associated with worse performance in a planning task. His work suggests it could be possible to target specific brain circuits using “personalized circuit-based neurotherapeutics” to improve treatment of OCD.

The first-prize winner in the poster presentation was Bamidele Johnson, M.D., Ph.D., for his poster on “Association Between Cannabis Use and Cognitive Function.” His work used data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System to demonstrate a statistically significant association between use of cannabis in the past 30 days and cognitive decline; cognitive decline was indicated by a positive response to the question: “Have you experienced confusion or memory loss that is happening more often or getting worse?”

Johnson concluded: “Recent research findings indicating a potential correlation between cannabis consumption and neurocognitive function should be a point of focus for policymakers, health care professionals, and individuals. Further research is necessary to determine causation and to investigate the potential long-term effects of sustained cannabis use on the risk of developing dementia.”

The competition judges were Jose Rubio, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell; Adjoa Smalls-Mantey, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagellos College of Physicians and Surgeons; and Omar Shareef, M.D., M.B.A., an assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia.

In addition to its 75th anniversary, the BPS event marked the 50th year of service by BPS Executive Director Linda Majowka. Since she began as an “executive secretary” in 1971, she has seen a lot of change. “The wives of the doctors used to help their husbands with society work, sending out letters and invitations to events,” she told Psychiatric News. “I guess the wives got tired of that, and the society hired someone to do the job—that was me. The world was changing for women then.

“I did all the work from my home, with a baby in a playpen,” she said. “But the job evolved over time as the BPS did. Executive secretaries became executive directors, and I started going to council meetings and taking on more responsibilities that had previously been carried by the doctors. In time I began attending APA Assembly meetings. At some point, APA decided we were important and started having meetings specifically for the district branch executive directors at the Assembly.”

Majowka still does all the BPS business from her home in Brookhaven, on Long Island. “I care very much about the BPS and have for all these 50 years,” she said. “My members are very special to me, and we all know they do such important work.” ■