Anjali Sankar

Scientific interests

My research is dedicated to the study of mood disorders, both major depressive and bipolar disorders. An important focus is on identifying reliable biomarkers that can predict clinical response to treatments as well as negative outcomes such as suicide using multimodal neuroimaging techniques.

Biography

Publications

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1vM7d0wlu_5s99/bibliography/public/

Sankar A, Panchal P, Goldman D, Colic L, Villa LM, Kim JA, Lebowitz ER, Carrubba E, Lecza B, Silverman WK, Swartz HA, Blumberg HP. Telehealth Social Rhythm Therapy to Reduce Mood Symptoms and Suicide Risk in Adolescents and Young Adults with Bipolar Disorder. The American Journal of Psychotherapy (in press).

Panchal P, Kim JA, Sankar A, Goldman D, Villa LM, Millard H, Carrubba E, Lecza B, Merikangas KR, Silverman WK. Changing gears in the treatment of bipolar disorder through integrated use of electronic devices. Bipolar Disord. 2021.

Sankar A, Purves K, Colic L, Lippard ETC, Millard H, Fan S, Spencer L, Wang F, Pittman B, Constable RT, Blumberg HP. Altered frontal cortex functioning in emotion regulation and hopelessness in bipolar disorder. Bipolar Disord. 2020. (Epub ahead of print).

Hsu DT, Sankar A, Malik MA, Langenecker SA, Mickey BJ, Love TM. Common neural responses to romantic rejection and acceptance in healthy adults. Social Neurosci. 2020:1-13. Epub ahead of print.

Sankar A, Yttredahl A, Fourcade EW, Sanford BJ, McRobert E, Sheler B, Mickey BJ, Love TM, Langenecker SA, Hsu DT. Dissociable neural responses to monetary and social gain and loss in women with major depressive disorder. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 2019; 13:149-159.

Fan S, Lippard ETC, Sankar A, Wallace A, Johnston JAY, Wang F, Pittman B, Spencer L, Oquendo M, Blumberg HP. Grey and white matter alterations associated with suicide attempts in adolescents and young adults with bipolar and major depressive disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2019; 245:1089:1097.

Lippard ETC, Johnston JAY, Spencer L, Quatrano S, Fan S, Sankar A, Weathers J, Pittman B, Oquendo M, Blumberg HP. Gray and white matter structure and longitudinal changes in frontal systems associated with future suicide attempts in adolescents and young adults with mood disorders. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2019; 245:1139-1148.

Sankar A, Costafreda SG, Marangell L, Fu CH. Other race effect on amygdala response during affective facial processing in major depression. Neuroscience Letters. 2018; 662:381-384.

Sankar A, Melin A, Lorenzetti V, Horton P, Costafreda SG, Fu CH. A systematic review and meta-analysis of the neural correlates of psychological therapy in major depression. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging. 2018; 279:31-39.

Sankar A, Adams T, Costafreda SG, Marangell L, Fu CH. Effects of antidepressant therapy on the neural correlates of verbal working memory in depression. Journal of Psychopharmacology. 2017; 31(9):1176-1183.

Sankar A, Zhang T, Goankar B, Doshi J, Erus G, Costafreda SG, Marangell LB, Davatzikos C, Fu CH. Diagnostic potential of structural neuroimaging for depression in a multi-ethnic sample. British Journal of Psychiatry Open. 2016; 2(4):247-254.

Sankar A, Fu CH. Psychotherapy and antidepressant treatment effects on the functional neuroanatomy of depression. Psychopathology Review. 2016; 3(1):16-28.

Sankar A, Scott J, Paszkiewicz A, Giampietro V, Steiner H, Fu C. Neural effects of cognitive–behavioural therapy on dysfunctional attitudes in depression. Psychological Medicine. 2015; 45(7):1425-1432.

Fu CH, Costafreda SG, Sankar A, Adams TM, Rasenick MM, Liu P, Donati R, Maglanoc, LA, Horton, P, Marangell, LB. Multimodal functional and structural neuroimaging effects in major depressive disorder before and after treatment with duloxetine. BMC Psychiatry. 2015; 15(1):82-93.

Atkinson L, Sankar A, Adams TM, Fu CH. Recent advances in neuroimaging of mood disorders: structural and functional neural correlates of depression, changes with therapy, and potential for clinical biomarkers. Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry. 2014; 1(3):278-93.

Book Chapters

Sankar A, Fu CH. Chapter 9: Neurocircuitries of emotion processing affected in Major Depressive Disorder. Eds Baune B & Harmer C. Cognitive Dimensions of Major Depressive Disorder. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. 2019; 101.

Damiano RF, Kim JA, Goldman D, Sankar A, Hoexter MQ, Blumberg HP. Neurocircuitaria do suicídio: uma revisão dos estudos de neuroimagem [Neurocircuitry of suicide: a review of brain imaging studies.] In Compreendendo o Suicídio [Comprehending Suicide], eds. Manole, São Paulo, Brazil, 1st ed., 2021, in press.

Awards

2020              Society of Biological Psychiatry Travel Award

2019-2021      Child and Adolescent Depression, Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation (KTGF) Fellowship Award

2019              Wisconsin Symposium on Emotion Travel Award

2018-2019      AIM Sullivan Family Clinical Science Fellow, AIM Foundation for Youth Mental Health

2013-2015      King’s College London: King’s Overseas Research Scholarship Award

2013              National Institute of Health Research (NIHR): Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) Travel Award

2011              King’s College London Travel Award

2010              Women’s Christian College: Award for highest overall graduating marks in Social and Abnormal Psychology