CENTER
On Depression & Resilience
Accelerating research by decades
Our Top Picks
Team Science
Imagine accelerating research by decades.
Digital Mental Health Initiative
The global mental health care crisis has become progressively dire and has catapulted depression to the number one cause of disability worldwide.
Fear of the unknown common to many anxiety disorders
Several anxiety disorders, including panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias, share a common underlying trait: increased sensitivity to uncertain threat, or fear of the u
UI Center on Depression & Resilience Launches Interdisciplinary Initiative for Perinatal Depression
Sunnyside for Moms, a new initiative at the UI Center on Depression & Resilience (UI CDR) combines cutting edge technology, enhanced mental health outreach efforts, and new opportunities
Featured Scientists
Jenna Duffecy PhD
Professor of Clinical PsychiatryDepartment of Psychiatry, UIC
Dr. Duffecy is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry in the Mood and Anxiety Disorders program at UIC. She serves as the director of UIC Resiliency Center for Student Wellbeing as well as the Director of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Research and Services. She specializes in providing evidence-based intervention to improve mental health and stress management with a focus on issues relevant for students, including anxiety, lifestyle changes and professional development. Much of her research focuses on how digital tools can be used to improve health and mental health.
Sally Weinstein PhD
Associate Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, Licensed Clinical PsychologistAssociate Director, University of Illinois Center on Depression and Resilience (UICDR)
Director, Psychosocial Training
Institute for Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry
University of Illinois Chicago
Sally Weinstein, Ph.D., is a Clinical Psychologist in the Pediatric Mood Disorders Clinic. Dr. Weinstein provides clinical evaluations and treatment for children and adolescents with mood disorders; facilitates the RAINBOW group therapy program for children with bipolar disorder and the Teen Girls Depression Group; and directs the psychosocial training of psychology interns and externs completing a clinical rotation in PMDC.
Olusola Ajilore MD PhD
Associate Head for Faculty DevelopmentUniversity of Illinois Center for Depression and Resilience (UI CDR) Professor of Psychiatry
Director, Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program
Director, Clinical Research Core/Center for Clinical and Translational Science
Director, Adult Neuroscience Residency Research Track
Co-Director, UICOM Medical Scientist Training Program
Department of Psychiatry
University of Illinois-Chicago
Dr. Ajilore's research goal is to understand the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder in the context of medical co-morbidities and late life using novel magnetic resonance imaging techniques. His group focuses on using structural and functional brain connectivity to study the brain as a network.
Alex Leow MD PhD
Professor in Psychiatry and BioengineeringUniversity of Illinois Chicago
Joining the University in 2009, Dr. Leow received clinical training in Psychiatry and research training in biomedical imaging, both at UCLA. Having co-authored more than 70 articles, Dr. Leow's current research interests focus on developing novel probabilistic reconstruction, tractography, and network analyses techniques for high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) and their clinical applications.
Pauline Maki PhD
Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology and Obstetrics & GynecologyDirector of Women’s Mental Health Research Program
Senior Director of Research, Center for Research on Women and Gender
For over 20 years, Dr. Pauline M. Maki has led a program of NIH-funded research focused on the role of sex steroid hormones on cognition, mood, brain function (neuroimaging) and stress responsivity in women. Women’s cognitive abilities, mood, and response to stress can be affected by changes in sex hormones, like estrogen, including changes that occur during the menopausal transition, during pregnancy, and across the menstrual cycle. In particular, the goal of her work is to improve the lives of women by identifying factors that alter their risk of cognitive decline and affective disorders.
Mark Rasenick PhD
Distinguished Professor of Physiology & Biophysics and PsychiatryDirector, Biomedical Neuroscience Training Program
Research Career Scientist, Jesse Brown VAMC
University of Illinois Chicago College of Medicine
Dr. Rasenick’s work has focused on G protein signaling in the nervous system and the relationship of neurotransmitter activation to rapid modification of the cytoskeleton.
Pioneering Research
UI CDR pushes the edge of what is possible.
UIC App Designed to Track Bipolar Disorder Wins Robert Wood Johnson Foundation-funded Mood Challenge for Research Kit
Doctor Alex Leow, associate professor of psychiatry in the UIC College of Medicine and associate professor of bioengineering and computer science, and Peter Nelson, professor of computer science an
Innovator of the Year develops blood test for clinical depression
Mark Rasenick, UIC Innovator of the Year, developed a blood test that can identify whether someone is clinically depressed.
Seeking neurobiological causes of teen suicide, depression
Pandey’s main research interests are the underlying biological causes of depression and suicide, especially in teenagers.
Custom Treatment
Mental health is not one size fits all. Everyone experiences depression a bit differently.
Brain disruptions similar across many emotional disorders
Researchers have long known that emotional disorders have a lot in common. Many often occur together, like depression and social anxiety disorder.
Psychiatric-Mental Health Nurses Recognized with 2016 American Psychiatric Nurses Association Annual Awards
The American Psychiatric Nurses Association (APNA) is thrilled to announce the recipients of the 2016 APNA Annual Awards.
Community
Outreach
Bringing research-informed behavioral health care from the clinic to the community where it is needed most.
Summit aims to decrease targeted violence
Federal, state and local government officials, along with representatives from the academic, nonprofit and private sectors, developed a blueprint for reducing targeted violence during a recen
A Conceptual Framework for Public Health Approach to Children’s Mental Health
A number of recent developments have begun pointing the way toward a new approach to children’s mental health in the United States.
U of I to test medical model for poor children on the South and West
The University of Illinois is receiving a $19.6 million federal grant to test a medical care model that focuses on poor children and young adults with chronic conditions such as asthma and diabetes
