Department of endogenous mental disorders and affective states

Galina Petrovna Panteleyeva is the head of the division of endogenous mental disorders and affective states, doctor of medical sciences, Professor. In 1966 she upheld her PhD (Candidate of Med. Sci.) thesis “Continuous slowly progressive schizophrenia with personality changes of the psychasthenic type”, in 1976 - her doctoral thesis was “On heboidophrenia”. Her scientific interests involve psychopathological, clinical and prognostic aspects, classification and pathogenesis of endogenous diseases (schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective psychoses), psychopharmacotherapy and prevention of relapses of endogenous psychoses, individual prognosis of a therapeutic response. Under the scientific supervision of G.P. Panteleyeva, 17 PhD (Candidate of Med. Sci.) theses and 3 doctoral (Doctor of Med. Sci.) theses have been upheld. G.P. Panteleyeva is an author of over 170 scientific publications, 2 monographs. G.P. Panteleyeva is an expert of the Psychiatric section of the Scientific Council of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Chairman of the specialized Commission “Endogenous mental disorders” of the Inter-Institutional Scientific Council on Mental Health Problems of the RAMS, Ministry of Health, a member of the ethics committee of the MHRC RAMS. She participates and co-ordinates international multicenter programs on genetics and psychopharmacology, conducted in collaboration with a number of foreign countries.

The Department has been formed on the basis of the clinical unit of schizophrenia of the Institute of Psychiatry of AMS USSR, that had been formerly headed by Prof. R.A.Nadzharov, Prof. T.F. Papadoupoulos, Prof. A.K. Anufriev, Prof. I.V. Shakhmatova-Pavlova. This unit continued to study the different clinical types of the natural course of schizophrenia. Large genealogical patient samples were collected, that allowed to determine characteristic feature of the hereditary predisposition in various forms of this disease; along with this clinical and biological programs were further developed. These works continued studies on psychopathology and the clinical picture of schizophrenia, started under the leadership for Prof. A.V. Snezhnevsky at the Chair of Psychiatry of the Central Institute for Medical Postgraduate Training (CIMPT). In 1982, the clinical unit of schizophrenia within the Centre was transformed into the Department of endogenous psychoses of middle age and in 1998 - into the Department on endogenous mental disorders and affective states. The Department is based in 2 clinical units of the in-patient part of the MHRC RAMS, in a number of units in the mental hospital #15 and a number of out-patient psychiatric centres. The Department is in close collaboration with scientific laboratories of the Centre, namely, with the laboratories of clinical biochemistry, immunology, neurophysiology, psychology and genetics.

The Department is staffed with 22 persons: 19 research fellows, as well as psychiatrists and clinical psychologists.

Within its structure, the Department has a study group on psychiatric pathology of the juveniles (head - Prof. M. Ya. Tsutsulkovskaya).

Mella Yakovlevna Tsutsulkovskaya - Doctor of medical sciences, Professor. She upheld her PhD (Candidate of Med. Sci.) thesis “Clinical and forensic psychiatric assessment of early syphilis of the brain” in 1953 and defended her doctoral thesis “Clinical specifics of continuous schizophrenia with an onset in adolescency and young age” in 1968. Her scientific interests involve age-related specificity of psychopathology, the clinical picture, pathogenesis and treatment of endogenous mental disorders of the youth (schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective psychosis), problems of its early identification, classification and prognosis. She is an author of more than 150 scientific works, including one monograph. Under her supervision, 17 PhD's (Candidate of Med. Sci.) and 2 doctoral theses have been upheld. She is an organizer and supervisor of a constantly operating seminar “Modern aspects of clinical, expert and social problems of adolescent and juvenile psychiatry” for psychiatrists, who participate in military medical expertise, for psychiatrists working with adolescents and psychologists. She is a co-chairman of the Problem Commission “Mental Health o Children Adolescents and Youth” of the Inter-Institutional Scientific Council on Mental Health Problems of RAMS, the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation.

Scope of research activities of the Department:

1. Comparative nosological studies of psychopathology and clinical patterns of development of affective and delusional disorders in endogenous disorders, with an evaluation of their prognosis.

2. Determination of the characteristic features of psychopathology, clinical picture and systematization of attack-like endogenous psychoses - schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective psychoses, in their age-related aspect (those of the middle age and of the youth).

3. Identification of characteristic features of the pathogenesis of attack-like schizophrenia, schizoaffective and affective psychoses, based on genetic, clinical, biological and pathopsychological evaluation, with the aim of a nosological differentiation of endogenous psychoses.

4. A study of the clinical and pathogenetical basis for the clinical evaluation of an independent specific type of endogenous psychoses in the form of protracted attacks of puberty and the youth, and determination of age-related specificity of their psychopathological pictures, course and outcome.

5. Assessment of the role of endogenous, including genetic, and environmental factors (exogenous, somatogenic, seasonal) in the formation of endogenous psychoses and circular affective states.

6. Elaboration of a scientific basis for new approaches to the treatment of patients with endogenous psychoses, based on psychopharmacotherapy in combination with psychotherapy and psychocorrectional and social rehabilitation measures.