Posts by Joshua L. Roffman, MD, MMSc
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Genetic Patterning for Psychopathology Is Distinct in Children and Adults
Dylan E. Hughes, Joshua L. Roffman, MD, MMSc and colleagues found that psychopathology in children is most strongly related to a neurodevelopmental polygenic score comprising overlapping variants across ADHD, autism spectrum disorder, MDD and Tourette's, rather than to disease-specific polygenic scores as in adults.
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Youth Team Sports Participation Associates With Reduced Psychopathology Via Interaction With Biological Risk Factors
Keiko Kunitoki, MD, Joshua L. Roffman, MD, MMSc, and colleagues have linked participation in team sports more strongly to childhood mental health, compared with previous reports, by identifying polygenic risk and subcortical volume as potential intermediate biological mechanisms.
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Interleukin-6 and Interferon-y Show Different Deleterious Effects in Human Stem Cell-Based Model of Neurodevelopment
Fetal exposure to interleukin-6 and interferon-y influences the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders through different mechanisms, Massachusetts General Hospital researchers found in a human model. In vitro treatment with folic acid early in neuron development mitigated the threat.
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Adverse Prenatal Exposures Sharply Augments Risk of Psychiatric Symptoms in Childhood
The relationship between adverse prenatal exposures and psychopathology in childhood is straightforward, Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have found: the greater the number of certain exposures, the greater the risk.
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Translation, Discovery and Collaboration in Psychiatry
Researchers from the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital discuss their collaborative work in clinical and translational research.
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Prenatal Folic Acid Exposure Linked to Reduced Risk of Psychosis in Adolescence
Psychiatrists at Massachusetts General Hospital present the first evidence that prenatal exposure to folic acid has a beneficial effect on postnatal brain development—and reduces the risk of psychotic disorders later in life.
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Prenatal Folic Acid and Schizophrenia Prevention
Joshua Roffman, MD, MMSc, discusses his recent work investigating folic acid’s potential neuroprotective effects that may guard against schizophrenia development.
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Prenatal Exposure to Folic Acid-fortified Foods May Reduce Mental Illness Risk
Fortification of grain-based foods with folic acid, a practice instituted in the U.S. in the 1990s to prevent neural tube defects in infants, may also reduce the incidence of severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia that initially appear in young adulthood.
Biography
Joshua Roffman, MD, is a board certified psychiatrist and investigator in the Schizophrenia Clinical and Research Program. He is assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and directs the Brain Genomics Laboratory at Mass General.
After graduating with high honors in neuroscience at Amherst College, Dr. Roffman completed his medical training at the University of Maryland, National Institutes of Health, and Mass General-McLean Adult Psychiatry Residency Training Program. He was the recipient of early career awards from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and NARSAD/Brain & Behavior Research Foundation among others. His research is currently supported by NIMH, NARSAD, and MQ: Transforming Mental Health, where he was named one of the inaugural MQ Fellows.
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