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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Jibran Khokhar @drjkhokhar.bsky.social · 01/05/2026

One join us on Saturday for the High Stakes Session! Featuring @zivacooper.bsky.social @heatherwardmd.bsky.social @siararouzer.bsky.social @rachelrabin.bsky.social #SOBP2026 If you are around on Saturday, come say hi!

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · 16/07/2025

This recent Research Highlight from @heatherwardmd.bsky.social‬ discusses how single rTMS sessions with fMRI to probe mechanism are critical stepping stones that line the path toward highly effective neuromodulation interventions for substance use www.nature.com/artic...

nature.com

One step at a time: use of single-session rTMS to test novel targets for substance use disorders

Neuropsychopharmacology - One step at a time: use of single-session rTMS to test novel targets for substance use disorders

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

8. These results have dramatic implications for treatment of psychomotor function in psychotic disorders, as they suggest a unifying role of DMN connectivity in psychomotor disturbance 🏃, overall function, and well-being 😀.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

7. We identified significant relationships between the same brain regions and their connectivity patterns to the DMN that were related to well-being 😀, overall function, and grip strength 💪.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

6. Higher grip strength 💪 was correlated with greater connectivity from multiple brain regions to the DMN. Given associations between grip strength and well-being, we repeated this analysis to see if we would identify similar brain correlates for grip and well-being – and we did.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

5. Using data from the multi-site Human Connectome Project for Early Psychosis (HCP-EP, n=206), we performed a multivariate pattern analysis of the entire connectome 🧠 to identify brain circuits linked to grip strength 💪, overall function, and well-being 😀.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

4. The brain 🧠 correlates of grip strength have been presumed to lie in the motor system, so previous brain analyses are frequently restricted to motor regions. However, a unifying brain circuit explanation linking grip strength and overall well-being has remained elusive 👀 until now

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

3. Grip strength 🏋️ is one measure of motor function associated with all-cause mortality and overall well-being. It has been assumed that associations between grip strength and well-being are purely related to mechanical impairments reflective of overall poorer physical health.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 14/07/2025

2. Psychomotor disturbance is highly prevalent across psychiatric disorders and has many manifestations, e.g., catatonia, psychomotor retardation, psychomotor agitation, etc. But what is the neurobiological mechanism of psychomotor disturbance 🏃 in psychiatric disorders?

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

7. TMS is an exciting intervention for SUDs because of the flexibility in its administration schedule. We should design and test alternative TMS dosing schedules that are: 1) Highly effective 💪 and 2) Accessible for individuals recovering from SUDs.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

6. Extended dosing: Recovery from substance use takes time and behavior change, and symptoms of post-acute withdrawal can persist for weeks. Extended TMS dosing, such as multiple sessions/day once per week, may be an opportunity to provide continued treatment & relapse prevention

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

5. Accelerated dosing: Newer, accelerated protocols apply multiple TMS sessions per day to shorten time to response. However, protocols that involve treatment for 10h/day x 5 days pose challenges to recovery goals, such as full-time employment, education, or caretaking.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

4. Flexible dosing: Traditional TMS protocols involve weekly treatment for weeks at a time. Recently, studies have tested flexible protocols that provide TMS a few times/week, allowing for more scheduling flexibility (Meredith Addicott & Greg Sahlem)

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

3. As TMS has been increasingly studied as a novel intervention for SUDs, the principle of patient-centered care has been absent from protocol design. We focus on dosing schedule and advocate for patient-centered neuromodulation protocols to support recovery from SUDs.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

2. TMS has growing interest and evidence as a novel treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs). Substance use treatment has embraced patient-centered care approaches that prioritize a patient’s individual needs, goals, and treatment preferences.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

1. Excited to share “Rewiring recovery: Patient-centered 🧲🧠 neuromodulation interventions for substance use disorders that meet people where they are,” in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation with @VUMCPsych collaborators Sophia Blyth and Kristopher Kast www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · 17/06/2025

Studies like Petersen et al. that use single rTMS sessions with fMRI to probe the mechanism of rTMS for substance use disorders are critical stepping stones toward highly effective neuromodulation interventions for substance use @heatherwardmd.bsky.social www.nature.com/articles/s41...

nature.com

One step at a time: use of single-session rTMS to test novel targets for substance use disorders - Neuropsychopharmacology

Neuropsychopharmacology - One step at a time: use of single-session rTMS to test novel targets for substance use disorders

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Megan Ranney MD MPH @meganranney.bsky.social · 15/06/2025

Over the next 25 years, if proposed cuts in NIH funding are made real, “In a population of more than 340 million, this reflects **82 million** fewer years of life.” In the US alone. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

jamanetwork.com

Cutting the NIH—The $8 Trillion Health Care Catastrophe

This JAMA Forum discusses the recent budget cuts to National Institutes of Health (NIH), the effects of these cuts on scientific research and health of individuals in the US, and the prospects for cha...

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 16/06/2025

These labor-intensive, mechanistic TMS studies are 🏋️‍♀️ challenging to conduct but provide critical stepping stones for future TMS clinical trials.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 10/06/2025

Only if it’s a randomized, crossover, within-subjects design 🤣

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Ethan Solomon @esolomon.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Excited to announce award of my K99/R00 "Theta burst modulation of hippocampal-cortical rhythms in schizophrenia," under amazing mentors at Stanford including @coreykeller.bsky.social! We will ask whether hippocampal oscillations can be systematically influenced by stimulation in schizophrenia.

reporter.nih.gov

RePORT ⟩ RePORTER

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

7. This project would not have been possible without a 🤩fantastic team. This analysis was led by @vanderbilt.edu undergrad Daniel Bello (now with @crodriguezmdphd.bsky.social) and grad student Megan Jones @vandyatvandy.bsky.social, @roscoebrady.bsky.social, Sophia Blyth, Ishaan Gadiyar, Laura Artim

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

6. Our analysis suggests that symptom provocation may improve clinical response to TMS for nicotine use and OCD. Large, randomized, controlled trials that directly compare TMS with and without provocation are critical to establish effect of symptom provocation on TMS response.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

5. We then investigated the individual effect of provocation. Although we did not observe a significant association of provocation with better response to TMS, there were stronger effect sizes of TMS with provocation compared to TMS without provocation for nicotine use and OCD.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

4. In our analysis, we found 1) Active TMS was more effective than sham for both OCD and nicotine dependence; 2) When comparing active and sham TMS, we observed significant effects of active TMS with or without provocation for OCD and with provocation for nicotine use over sham.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

3. Single TMS studies have suggested that provoking symptoms may improve TMS response, but this question has never been analyzed in sufficient numbers. We performed a meta-analysis to determine if symptom provocation substantially improved clinical response to TMS.

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

2. The FDA-cleared TMS 🧲🧠 protocols for OCD and nicotine dependence provoke a symptomatic state (provoking obsessive-thoughts or craving) prior to TMS in hopes of shifting the brain into a state more sensitive to TMS effects. But does this actually make TMS more effective?

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Heather Burrell Ward, MD @heatherwardmd.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

1. Our new @JAMAPsych publication shows that provoking symptoms before administering TMS for OCD and nicotine dependence may enhance clinical response. Read more here & tweetorial below: jamanetwork.com/journals/jam...

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Peg Duthie @plduthie.bsky.social · 07/06/2025

Vanderbilt PhD candidate Megan Jones @mntj21.bsky.social co-first-authored a JAMA Psychiatry review & analysis of 70+ randomized clinical trials that has collected 2K+ views (Altmetric 46) within 2 days. jamanetwork.com/journals/jam... More about her at www.vanderbilt.edu/biostatistic...

jamanetwork.com

Symptom Provocation and Clinical Response to TMS

This systematic review and meta-analysis investigates the association between symptom provocation and efficacy of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for nicotine dependence and obsessive-compulsi...

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Harvard Review of Psychiatry @harvardrevpsych.bsky.social · 29/04/2025

A 45yo man with a history of TBI and seizures presents with depression resistant to multiple medications. What should be the next treatment? Experts review rTMS, ECT, ketamine, and neurosurgery in this Clinical Challenge @heatherwardmd.bsky.social journals.lww.com/hrpjournal/f...

journals.lww.com

A Case of Treatment-Resistant Depression Complicated by... : Harvard Review of Psychiatry

An abstract is unavailable.

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Randy Rosso @fooddatanerd.com · 02/04/2025

🥗 If these aren't fightin' words, I don't know what are.

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

reginalabelle.bsky.social @reginalabelle.bsky.social · 01/04/2025

The entire SAMHSA staff that manages the National Survey on Drug Use and Health has been terminated. This is the only survey that tracks mental health and substance use trends in the US. We really are flying blind now.

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Susanne Ahmari @ahmarilab.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Unsurprisingly, funding has now also been terminated at University of Pittsburgh. Work from my outstanding colleagues in Psychiatry & Psychology, Erika Forbes and Jennifer Silk, investigating suicide in LGBQT young adults, terminated midstream😩 PA folks, add this to your daily calls to congress ☎️

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Susanne Ahmari @ahmarilab.bsky.social · 26/03/2025

Unclear why outstanding scientists @crodriguezmdphd.bsky.social and @thebalelab.bsky.social were removed from their important service on the NIH advisory board. Would be great to get some transparency on this…

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Jenni Blackford @jenniblackford.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

Small but mighty gathering in Omaha today by UNMC campus. Glad to be there with Adunaevsky.bsky.social!

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Sarah Tishkoff, PhD @sarahtishkoff.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Proud to stand up for science on the steps of the Tennessee state capital in Nashville! #standupforscience

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Jack Iwashyna @iwashyna.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

NIH budget: $ 48b Musk wealth: $351b Both are mostly funded by your tax dollars But only one might save your life . . . . Sources: www.nih.gov/about-nih/wh... Search results: elon musk net worth g.co/kgs/6c8YEuB @standupforscience.bsky.social

g.co

Google Search

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Katherine Stefanski @kmstefanski.bsky.social · 07/03/2025

Stand Up For Science TN (Nashville) was a success! Thanks to everyone who came out and @campbell4tn.bsky.social and @aftynbehn.bsky.social for coming out and adding their voices to the fight! @standupforscience.bsky.social #standupforscience2025

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Nature @nature.com · 07/03/2025

The mood was defiant at many of the rallies, where chants of “Scientists will not be silenced”, “Facts over fear” and “What do we want? Peer review! When do we want it? Now!” were heard. go.nature.com/3F8T6FX

go.nature.com

‘Scientists will not be silenced’: thousands protest Trump research cuts

Researchers at Stand Up for Science rallies voice defiance against the policies of US President Donald Trump’s administration.

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Kelly Taylor, MS, CGC @msfopra.bsky.social · 08/03/2025

#standupforscience2025 in Nashville was a big success. I spoke. I didn’t throw up. 😂 Love seeing all the pics from around the country and around the world. Out of the lab and into the streets! @standupforscience.bsky.social

Protesters with signs on steps at Capitol in Nashville.

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Reposted by Heather Burrell Ward, MD

Neuropsychopharmacology @npp-journal.bsky.social · 04/03/2025

What's new at @acnporg.bsky.social in 2025? A whole *new* cohort of ACNP Associate Members! 🤩 Over the next few months, we'll be introducing our new Associate Members, so keep an eye out & send congrats their way! #WelcomeToACNP👋 Today, say hello to Dr. Gustavo Angarita from Yale Psychiatry 👇

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