Massachusetts General Hospital Child Depression Program

05/28/2024

Honoring & , we'd like to celebrate the advocacy of Dr. Mai Uchida, Director of the MGH Child Depression Program, that significantly improved the COVID vaccination rates in Japan.
See her story here!: https://go.mydrkatz.com/4bJd9FR

04/12/2023

Please meet Harvard Medical School's newest Associate Professor of Psychiatry! Congratulations, Dr. Uchida!

03/21/2023

Call for Participants!

We are studying children of parents with ADHD, and we are looking for volunteers.

In this research study, we want to learn more about the development of ADHD in children ages 4-8 years whose parents either have been diagnosed with ADHD or do not have a diagnosis of ADHD. If you have a child between the ages of 4-8, they may qualify for this study, even if you do not have ADHD!

The study consists of brief clinical interviews on Zoom and surveys regarding your child’s behavior, and you would receive a $20 e-check each visit for your compensation, for up to $60. Additionally, there is an optional MRI brain scan that would take place at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It is not necessary for study participation, and you would be compensated $100 if you choose this additional step.

To learn more, please contact Hannah O’Connor at hgoconnor@mgh.harvard.edu or 617-643-6617.

09/01/2022

Do you enjoy watching figure skating? How did you feel about the Olympics this year?
Here's Dr. Uchida and Dr. Morelli's (both former figure skaters and current child psychiatrists at MGH!) take on what they saw regarding the doping scandal of the young Russian skaters at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.
https://www.mghclaycenter.org/hot-topics/figure-skating-supporting-our-young-athletes/

Two former competitive figure skaters turned pediatric psychiatrists shine light on figure skating, and young athlete mental health.

09/01/2022

https://www.mghclaycenter.org/multimedia/youth-athlete-mental-health-mgh-clay-center/

If you are a parent or a coach to a young athlete, or if you care about athletes' mental health, this is a podcast for you! Listen to Dr. Uchida talk about how to keep the sport exciting and competitive, while protecting the mental well-being of the young athletes!

At what point are we pushing our young athletes too hard? We all watched 15-year-old Russian Olympic skater, Kamila Valieva, exit the ice in tears after a doping scandal.

09/01/2022

Call for Participants!!🙋‍♀️
We are studying children of parents with ADHD and we are looking for volunteers!
In this research study we want to learn more about the development of ADHD in children ages 4-8 whose parents either have been diagnosed with ADHD or do not have a diagnosis of ADHD. If you have a child between the ages of 4-8, they may qualify for this study even if you don't have ADHD!
There is an optional MRI brain scan at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which is compensated for $50.
To learn more, please see the graphic below and email Daniel Walsh at dwalsh20@mgh.harvard.edu, or call 617-726-1665.

10/15/2021

Our new paper, “Association Between Frontal Cortico-Limbic White-Matter Microstructure and Risk for Pediatric Depression” was accepted to Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging!

Dr. Uchida led this collaborative neuroimaging study with the MIT Gabrieli group that identified structural brain connectivity that differentiated the risk for unipolar depression and the risk for bipolar disorder in children.

The differentiation of these two types of mood disorders in children is a significant clinical conundrum. Our group has been searching for clinical indicators and neural biomarkers that could give us a sign, and this paper brings us one step closer to our overarching goal!

06/28/2021

What happens to kids who have ADHD that grow up? The adult outcomes of longitudinal studies that followed children with ADHD was published in the Journal of American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AKA the Orange Journal)!
https://www.jaacap.org/article/S0890-8567(21)00366-X/fulltext

To describe adult outcome of people with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) diagnosed in childhood and its several key predictors via a review of 7 North American controlled prospective follow-up studies: Montreal, New York, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), B...

06/21/2021

Please read Dr. Uchida's thoughts on tennis player, Naomi Osaka's withdrawal from competition and mental health advocacy.

By Mai Uchida, MD

06/11/2021

Our newest publication on the 10 year year longitudinal follow up of children with genetic risk for depression into their adolescent to young adult years was picked up on the MGH Psychiatry News!

https://mghpsychnews.org/subsyndromal-symptoms-in-children-predict-onset-of-depression/

The Child Behavior Checklist can be used to identify children at increasing risk for developing major depression.

05/22/2021

Gracie Gold is also joining our conversation tonight! 2 national champions and 2 Olympic team Bronze medalists are sitting down with Dr. Uchida to discuss their mental health journeys!
Register from www.mghstudentwellness.org/mirai

05/17/2021

We cannot convey how excited we are to finally release these video interviews with two-time Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu & Dr. Mai Uchida!

平昌五輪チーム銅メダリスト・フィギュアスケーター長洲未来選手が、ハーバード大学助教授・小児精神科医の内田舞と、14歳という若さで全米チャンピオンになり、2度の五輪出場、1度の五輪代表落ちを経験された過程でのご自身のメンタルヘルスに関して赤裸々に語ってくれました。対談ビデオ(日本語字幕付き)はこちら↓↓からご覧下さい！

Mirai became the national champion at age 14, and had to manage the responsibility of an elite athlete while her brain was massively in development as a teenager. She experienced depression following missing the Olympic shot, and sought treatment. She came back to become the first American woman to land the triple axel at the Olympics (!!), but her self-discovery happened after retirement.

Chapter 1 Teen Champion: https://youtu.be/KpiXmMBKj6Y
Chapter 2 Missing The Olympic Shot: https://youtu.be/QdY1R0bLZME
Chapter 3 Body Image: https://youtu.be/cPPvSBLAboE
Chapter 4 The Triple Axel: https://youtu.be/JugXerdZyh8
Chapter 5 Self Discovery After The Olympics: https://youtu.be/1fDlc8tlM20

If you'd like to learn more about Mirai's journey, please visit our website: www.mghstudentwellness.org/mirai & also come to the live Q&A event with Mirai and Dr. Uchida on Saturday!

We are hosting a LIVE conversation with Mirai and Dr. Uchida on Saturday 5/22 7:30pm EST. Please register from here: https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register...

05/14/2021

In honor of AAPI Heritage and Mental Health Awareness month, we are thrilled to be hosting a mental health conversation with Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu and Dr. Mai Uchida, Director of the MGH Child Depression Program and collaborating faculty with our Center. This special LIVE event will explore Mirai’s mental health struggles and resilience during her competitive career. Please scan the QR code or visit the link below to register and join us for this important conversation.

https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jiHrEM8kTlSgleZiwFxXjw

The pre-recorded video interviews with Mirai & Mai are released! Please see them here! www.mghstudentwellness.org/mirai

05/12/2021

In honor of AAPI Heritage and Mental Health Awareness month, MGH Center for Cross-Cultural Student Emotional Wellness is thrilled to be hosting a mental health conversation with Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu and Dr. Mai Uchida, Director of the MGH Child Depression Program. This special LIVE event will explore Mirai’s mental health struggles and resilience during her competitive career. Please scan the QR code or visit https://harvard.zoom.us/.../reg.../WN_jiHrEM8kTlSgleZiwFxXjw, and join us for this important conversation.
Stay tuned for the release of the pre-recorded video interviews with Mirai!

In honor of AAPI Heritage and Mental Health Awareness month, we are thrilled to be hosting a mental health conversation with Olympic figure skater Mirai Nagasu and Dr. Mai Uchida, Director of the MGH Child Depression Program and collaborating faculty with our Center. This special LIVE event will explore Mirai’s mental health struggles and resilience during her competitive career. Please scan the QR code or visit https://harvard.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_jiHrEM8kTlSgleZiwFxXjw, and join us for this important conversation.

Stay tuned for the release of the pre-recorded video interviews with Mirai!

03/23/2021

Our second paper of the week is published!
What happens when you have some genetic or symptomatic risk factors of depression when you are a child? What happens when you grow older? We try to answer part of these questions in this paper published in Journal of Affective Disorder.

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S016503272100255X

: We have previously shown that subsyndromal scores on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL)-Anxiety/Depression (Anx/Dep) scale at baseline predicted th…

03/23/2021

The first of two papers published this week is on Nature Communications!
Mind-wandering is an experience where your thoughts wander from one topic to another without active intentions even when you need to focus on a task in front of you. In collaboration with MIT and North Eastern neuroimaging labs, we've examined what is happening in our brain networks when we are mind-wandering.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-22027-0

People spend much of their daily lives thinking about things that are unrelated to their immediate environment. Using fMRI, Kucyi et al. show that occurrence of these “stimulus-independent” thoughts can be predicted from a complex pattern of coordinated activity between distinct parts of the bra...

03/02/2021

As Dr. Uchida always says, "Educate your gut, then listen to your gut, in weighing the risks of intervening vs the risks of not intervening." She's been hard at work in community engagements and public education about the vaccine mechanism, efficacy and safety - particularly in Japan, where the severity of vaccine hesitancy is a public health issue. See more on https://twitter.com/MGH_Child_Dep

BOSTON (WHDH) - Some pregnant women are now eligible to receive a shot if they also have another qualifying health condition — leaving many with...

01/29/2021

What is a mRNA vaccine? Does it work? Is it safe? Dr. Uchida answers these questions as she shares why she got her COVID vaccine during pregnancy.

https://youtu.be/n0BnZm5LX1M

MGH Child Depression Program Director and Child Psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Dr. Mai Uchida discusses the mechanism, efficacy and safety o...