FALL/WINTER 2019 Columbia Dean to Step Down After 14 years, Lee Goldman Medicine to leave leadership roles The Legacy of Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons Kira Sergievsky Her epilepsy inspired her family to establish the Gertrude H. Sergievsky Center SCIENTIFIC UNDERSTANDING, INNOVATIVE IDEAS FOR PREVENTION, SUICIDE AND HOPE • FROM• FROM THE THE DEAN DEAN Dear Readers, In my 2015 book, “Too Much of a Good Thing,” the system and make things better (fatalistic I described four key survival traits that have suicide). Suicide is far more common enabled humans to stay alive for over 200,000 among people who abuse drugs and alcohol. years. One of these was the hypervigilance The alcohol and drugs probably directly needed to avoid getting killed—no small feat contribute to the risk of suicide, but we in prehistoric times, when violence caused also know that drug and alcohol abuse can JÖRG MEYER up to a quarter of human deaths. Though it be precipitated by the same emotions that seems counterintuitive, some of the mental precipitate suicide. illnesses that can precipitate suicide derive For nearly 200,000 years, our ancestors from the related survival traits: the anxiety fought a veritable arms race between and phobias needed to avoid life-threatening developing more sophisticated ways to kill situations, as well as the withdrawal and and designing better defensive strategies to temporary depression that give us time to avoid getting killed. The good news is that recuperate after a loss. We also need to know the defense is winning. The bad news is when to fight, when to flee, and when to be that the balance has tipped to the point where submissive if we can’t win or escape. our defenses against being murdered are Over time, however, violence has declined, now precipitating anxiety and depression that and the world has gotten much safer. are killing more of us than the violence they Unfortunately, this decline in violence is were designed to avoid. Suicide is the 10th partially offset by the fact that suicide is most common cause of death in the United now about twice as common as murder in States and the seventh leading cause of lost the United States today. More U.S. veterans years of life. Depression is the fifth leading and active-duty service members die each contributor to years lived with disability. year from suicides than the total American Regardless of the reasons behind the military deaths in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even statistics, we all can agree that these when guns are involved, suicides outnumber numbers are too high. I invite you to murder and all other causes combined. explore the articles inside this issue to As a result, the same hypervigilant, fear- learn about the progress being made at driven survival mechanisms that helped Columbia to understand and prevent our ancestors know, learn, and remember suicide. Our researchers and experts are how to avoid getting killed now are doing their part to turn the hypervigilance counterproductive because of the anxiety, of our ancestors into research and new phobias, depression, and even suicide that treatments that will reduce the number they can cause. of lost years and lost lives. For individuals, the pain caused by sadness, hopelessness, and depression— With best wishes for a happy and healthy 2020, inadequately treated if treated at all—is what usually leads to suicide. Suicide also can be linked to losing social contact with family and friends (egoistic suicide), to the failure to achieve desired goals (anomic suicide), Lee Goldman, MD, Dean and to frustration about an inability to fight [email protected] ON THE COVER: Illustration by Scott Bakal Vol. 39 No. 2 Fall/Winter 2019 in thisIssue departments features 2 Letters/Editor’s Note 3 VP&S News 10 Clinical Advances • Is a Genetic Cure for Sickle Cell Disease on the Horizon? • The Neonatal Comfort Care Program 30 Alumni News & Notes • Profile: Peter Bolo’85 • N ewest honorary graduate: Lisa Mellman • Alumni in Print • Anke Nolting to Retire The Survivors Left Behind • Daniela Lamas’08: TV Writer 12 By Christine Yu 43 In Memoriam “Life After Suicide,” a book written by Jennifer Ashton, a 2000 graduate and ABC News chief medical correspondent, describes the hope, strength, resilience, Faculty and alumni who have died help, and love that defined her family’s journey toward healing. Studying Suicide: Brain Imaging, Neurochemistry, Molecular Genetics 18 Offer Insight By Anne Harding Longtime studies supported by federal funding have allowed Columbia researchers to identify four behavioral indicators that characterize depressed suicidal individuals and to map the indicators to specific areas of the brain. Each risk factor is potentially modifiable. Preventing Suicide: Genetic Studies, 24 Screenings, Apps By Joseph Neighbor Columbia has more people working on suicide prevention research than anywhere in the world, says J. John Mann, recipient of a 2019 Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, but even successful identification of individuals at risk will not eliminate 10 the largest challenge: stigma. ColumbiaMedicine Letters Chairman, Editorial Board Thomas Q. Morris, MD Remembering a Mentor Alumni Professor Emeritus of Clinical Medicine I was very saddened to read in the spring/summer edition of Columbia Editor Medicine of the passing of Ralph James Veenema, MD. He was one of Bonita Eaton Enochs my mentors during my 1966-1970 residency at Squier Urological Clinic. Science Editor He was a very meticulous surgeon with a very precise analytical mind. Susan Conova When we presented surgical cases to him he would ask penetrating questions re: the reasoning behind our choices. In cancer cases, he would Contributing Writers Jeff Ballinger Joseph Neighbor stress whether we were operating for “curative” or “palliative” reasons. Alan Dove Rose Spaziani In dissection, he abhorred blunt finger dissection and preferred precise Tim Gahr Christine Yu instrument use for controlled dissection. He did not favor the classic Anne Harding suprapubic prostatectomy because it was not precise or controlled. Alumni News Editor He much preferred the retropubic transcapsular approach where you Marianne Wolff, MD dissect under direct vision. He even perfected a specialized retropubic Alumni Writer prostate retractor (named after him). After I entered private practice in Julia Hickey Miami, Florida, I would, at times, have surgical cases where I realized I was analyzing and planning a procedure and asking myself the same Design and Art Direction Eson Chan questions that Dr. Veenema asked of us during these residency years. He had a great influence on me and many of his other residents. Editorial Board Ian Nisonson’62 Ryan Blake’20 Lisa Mellman, MD James Choi’21 Stephen E. Novak Via email Ron Drusin, MD Carmen Ortiz-Neu, MD Bruce Forester, MD Ajay Padaki, MD Oscar Garfein, MD Richard Polin, MD Sankar Ghosh, PhD Donald Quest, MD send letters to: Lee Goldman, MD Alan Schechter, MD Bonita Eaton Enochs, Editor Tom Hickernell, MD John Schullinger, MD Columbia Medicine Jay Lefkowitch, MD Joseph Tenenbaum, MD Ashley London’21 Jonathan Xu’20 Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons 630 W. 168th St., Box 153 Columbia Medicine is published twice a year for alumni, faculty, New York, NY 10032 students, and other supporters of the Columbia University Email: [email protected] Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons. It is published by the college and the VP&S Alumni Association through the VP&S Office of Communications. Additional content can be found in the online edition at columbiamedicinemagazine.org. Lee Goldman, MD Editor’s Note Dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine and Chief Executive of Columbia University Irving Medical Center Remembering a Staff Member Christopher DiFrancesco Inside this issue you will read about “Life After Chief Communications Officer Suicide,” the book Jennifer Ashton’00 wrote Address correspondence to: about her family’s recovery from a loved one’s Bonita Eaton Enochs, Editor death. Stigma helps hide many suicides, but they Columbia Medicine 630 W. 168th St., Box 153 touch more people than many of us realize. In New York, NY 10032 July, the Columbia Medicine staff endured its 212-305-3900 BRIAN WINKOWSKI own experience when our editorial assistant for Email: [email protected] 2½ years, Avichai Assouline, died by suicide. He was a talented writer, a gifted filmmaker and screenwriter pursuing a master’s degree, and a Join the medical school’s Facebook page at valued contributor to the magazine in myriad ways. www.facebook.com/columbiaps In the last three months of his life, Avi had opened up about being Alumni should update their addresses by writing the diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Echoing Dr. Ashton’s Alumni Association at the address above or calling the alumni rationale for writing her book, Avi decided to talk about his diagnosis office at 212-305-3498. to reduce the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide ideation. Faculty and staff should contact their departmental Avi died when living with his mental illness became unbearable, administrators to update their addresses, which are obtained and even though his byline does not appear in this issue, his inspira- through the Columbia University personnel system. tion informs every word of it. —Bonita Eaton Enochs All others with address changes should contact VP&S Communications at 212-305-3900 or columbiamedicine2 [email protected]. Fall/Winter 2019 News from around the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons VPS& news Lee Goldman Announces Plans to Leave Posts in 2020 fter 14 years in leadership positions at VP&S and CUIMC, Lee Goldman, MD, will step down as execu- A tive vice president and dean of the Faculties of Health Sciences and Medicine and chief executive of the medical center on June 30, 2020.