Rebecca Brachman: A new class of drug that could prevent depression and PTSD
Rebecca Brachman is a pioneer in the field of preventative psychopharmacology, developing drugs to enhance stress resilience and prevent mental illness. Full bio
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were made from, of all things,
one in five soldiers develop depression,
that are at high risk for these diseases.
cancer patients, aid workers, refugees --
or major life stress.
these disorders are,
if they work at all,
discovered the first vaccine --
a prophylactic for a disease,
to extend to psychiatric diseases.
accidentally discovered
depression and PTSD.
whether they work in humans.
psychopharmaceuticals
stress resilience,
that you've since recovered from.
you missed a flight.
is the active biological process
to bounce back after stress.
and your immune system fights it off.
enough stressor,
such as depression.
of major depressive disorder
against purely biological stressors,
like bullying and isolation.
of stress hormones.
without a psychological component.
of antidepressant treatment beforehand,
enhancer given a week before
the depressive behavior.
a drug has ever been shown
often lifelong, clinical diseases.
of substance abuse, homelessness,
is over three trillion dollars per year.
where we know someone is predictively
to extreme stress.
going into an earthquake zone.
of a resilience enhancer
by looters or worse,
against developing depression or PTSD
from experiencing the stress,
her susceptibility to depression and PTSD,
her home, her family or even her life.
the smallpox vaccine,
was widely available.
sensitive and creative and empathetic.
by constitution and not biology.
today about depression.
opened the door
that followed after,
open the possibility of a whole new field:
choose to do with it.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Rebecca Brachman - Neuroscientist, writer, entrepreneurRebecca Brachman is a pioneer in the field of preventative psychopharmacology, developing drugs to enhance stress resilience and prevent mental illness.
Why you should listen
Current treatments for mood disorders only suppress symptoms without addressing the underlying disease, and there are no known cures. The drugs Rebecca Brachman is developing would be the first to prevent psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression.
Brachman completed her PhD at Columbia University, prior to which she was a fellow at the National Institutes of Health, where she discovered that immune cells carry a memory of psychological stress and that white blood cells can act as antidepressants and resilience-enhancers. Brachman's research has been featured in The Atlantic, WIRED and Business Insider, and her work was recently described by Dr. George Slavich on NPR as a "moonshot project that is very much needed in the mental health arena."
In addition to conducting ongoing research at Columbia, Brachman is an NYCEDC Entrepreneurship Lab Fellow and cofounder of Paravax -- a biotech startup developing vaccine-like prophylactic drugs ("paravaccines") -- along with her scientific collaborator, Christine Ann Denny. She is also working on a non-profit venture to repurpose existing generic drugs for use as prophylactics, and previously served as the Interim Program Director for Outreach at the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University.
Brachman is also a playwright and screenwriter. She holds Bachelor's degrees in both neuroscience and creative wWriting, and she is currently working on a tech-focused writing project with her long-time writing partner, Sean Calder ("Grimm," "Damages," "ER"). She served as the director of NeuWrite, a national network of science-writing groups that fosters ongoing collaboration between scientists, writers and artists, and she has been featured as a storyteller at The Story Collider.
(Photo: Kenneth Willardt)
Rebecca Brachman | Speaker | TED.com