School Notes: School of Public Health
January/February 2009

Mental health intervention urged for heart patients

Heart patients are particularly vulnerable to depression and should be screened -- and, if necessary, treated -- to improve their recovery and overall health, according to a scientific advisory issued by the American Heart Association and coauthored by a Yale School of Public Health researcher. "Depression and heart disease seem to be very much intertwined," said Judith H. Lichtman ’88MPH, ’96PhD, coauthor of the statement and associate professor of epidemiology at the School of Public Health. "You can't treat the heart in isolation from the patient's mental health," she added. The American Psychiatric Association has endorsed the statement -- the first of its kind on the link between heart disease and depression. Recommendations for patients with chronic heart disease include routine and frequent screening for depression in a variety of settings, such as the hospital, physician's office, and cardiac rehabilitation center, and helping patients with positive screening results to find a professional qualified to diagnose and manage treatment for depression.

Grant expands Yale's participation in national study on child development

The Yale School of Public Health has received a $10.7 million federal grant to expand its participation in a national study that will follow 100,000 children from before birth to age 21 to understand factors that contribute to their health and development.

Last year, Yale was awarded $15 million to start the work in New Haven County. With this additional grant, mothers and children from Litchfield County, Connecticut, will be included in the project. The study -- believed to be the largest of its kind ever undertaken -- seeks information that can be used to prevent and treat some of the nation's most pressing health problems, including autism, birth defects, diabetes, heart disease, and obesity. The study in Connecticut is under the direction of principal investigator Michael B. Bracken ’70MPH, ’74PhD, the Susan Dwight Bliss Professor of Epidemiology.

Insight into insect symbiosis could help humans

The gut of just about any organism is surely an unpleasant place, often teeming with a battery of hostile enzymes, yet such places in animals often harbor multiple species of bacteria. The exact physiological processes that allow some of these bacteria to thrive, while others perish, are not fully understood. A group of researchers headed by Serap Aksoy, professor of epidemiology and public health, is moving closer to explaining this dichotomy. They used the tsetse fly to understand processes that allow some bacteria to live in harmony with their host.

The Yale team discovered a mechanism that is at least partially responsible for the successful relationship between the tsetse fly and its symbiotic bacterium, Sodalis glossinidius. Sodalis, which is related to some important human microbes such as E. coli, Salmonella, and Yersinia, likely benefits the fly by increasing its longevity and possibly modulating immunity. A better understanding of the nature of symbiotic relationships -- which abound in nature and are crucial to the survival of most species -- could eventually have implications for people suffering from degenerative bowel diseases, such as Crohn's.