UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study From: UIC News Bureau Date: 15 Dec 2010 14:20:58 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 15, 2010 CONTACT: Anne Brooks Ranallo, (312) 355-2523, aranallo@uic.edu UIC GRANT FUNDS LGBT BULLYING STUDY A University of Illinois at Chicago researcher has received a $730,000 grant from the Ford Foundation for a four-year study of adolescents' reasoning about bullying due to gender and sexuality, and about bullying as a means of social control. Stacey Horn, UIC associate professor of educational psychology, said a growing body of research shows the prevalence of sexuality-related bullying, but few studies have investigated how adolescents view such behavior, and how age, culture, social groups, and school context influence their views. "Do young people view all forms of sexuality-based exclusion or bullying as harassment? Or do they see some of them as legitimate ways to regulate their peers' social behavior?" Horn said. "Do school norms, rules, and policies affect their reasoning?" Horn said harassment may include "calling someone a fag, slut or dyke to harm their social status, spreading a rumor about their sexual behavior, or even physical assault." Her research will begin with a survey to assess the frequency of various types of bullying in Chicago-area public schools. The researchers then will conduct one-on-one interviews of seventh-, ninth-, and 11th-graders that will encourage them to recall incidents of sexuality-related interactions, including such details as the relationship of perpetrator and victim, their mental states, peer status, presence of bystanders, outcome of the event, and to what extent the interview subject considered it harassment. In a second round of interviews, researchers will present vignettes based on incidents discussed in previous interviews, record the students' reactions, and prepare case studies to determine how those reactions are influenced by school context, particularly their schools' compliance with Illinois' recent anti-bullying law. Horn said the Ford Foundation grant is unique in its focus on public policy. Recipients must not only conduct research, but also produce public education campaigns based on research results and train graduate students as the next generation of researchers in sexuality and sexual rights. Horn's research team will develop its public education campaign in partnership with the Illinois Safe Schools Alliance to reach middle- and high-school students and school personnel. "We'll be heavily involved in shaping how the anti-bullying law is implemented across the state," Horn said. "We're also working with a coalition of teacher education faculty from across the state to ensure that all teacher education students get adequate training in sexual orientation and gender identity." Horn's research will begin in January. Preliminary results from the research will be announced over the next two to three years. UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, please visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: UIC Surgeons Offer Obese Kidney Patients New Hope with Robotic Transplantation From: UIC News Bureau Date: 15 Dec 2010 12:05:33 -0600 To: diazm@uic.edu UIC News Release December 15, 2010 CONTACT: Sherri McGinnis González, (312) 996-8277, smcginn@uic.edu UIC SURGEONS OFFER OBESE KIDNEY PATIENTS NEW HOPE WITH ROBOTIC TRANSPLANTATION Surgeons at the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago are the first to offer robotic kidney transplantation to morbidly obese patients and report fewer complications among this high risk population. "We have been able to eliminate wound infections, pulmonary complications, and reduce the length of hospitalization for obese kidney transplant recipients using robotic-assisted surgery," said Dr. Enrico Benedetti, the Warren H. Cole Chair and head of surgery at UIC. Wound infections lead to increased risk of graft loss in transplant recipients, and obesity is the main risk factor for superficial wound infection, said Benedetti. In an abstract to be presented at the American Transplant Congress in May, Benedetti and colleagues report that robotic-assisted kidney transplantation eliminates wound infection (0 percent versus 15 percent in open surgery), pulmonary complications (0 percent versus 9 percent in open surgery) and length of hospitalization is reduced (5 days versus 8.5 days in open surgery). In Illinois, UIC is the only transplant center that will accept renal failure patients with a body mass index (BMI) above 40 who are in need of kidney transplantation, according to Benedetti. Most of these patients have no other access to kidney transplantation and experience high mortality rates while on dialysis. UIC surgeons have transplanted 13 morbidly obese patients since 2009 and report that all were successful, 100 percent patient and graft survival, with no complications. The team of surgeons includes Dr. Pier Cristoforo Giulianotti, head of robotic surgery, Dr. José Oberholzer, and Benedetti. "Sometimes, minimally invasive surgery does not offer many advantages over open surgery, other than the cosmetic result of having a smaller incision. However, for morbidly obese kidney transplant recipients, the robotic technique developed at UIC by Drs. Giulianotti and Benedetti, not only offers a more cosmetic result, but is a true life saving procedure," said Oberholzer, who is chief of transplantation at UIC. "Today, we can perform very safely a kidney transplant in obese patients who otherwise would be condemned to remain on dialysis with little chance for long term survival." Recently, two renal failure patients each with BMI over 50 underwent successful robotic kidney transplantation during a simultaneous paired exchange, or "swap" transplant, at the medical center. The two patients, who were complete strangers, came to UIC for living-donor transplant evaluation, but their respective donors turned out not to be blood-type compatible. The transplant team approached the two recipients about swapping donors, and the surgery proved life-saving for both. UIC is a leading institution for advanced applications of robotics in complex surgical procedures of the liver, lung, kidney and pancreas. For more information about the University of Illinois Medical Center at Chicago, visit www.MyMedCenter.org For additional information about UIC's transplantation programs and robotic kidney transplantation in obese patients, call (312) 996-6771. [Note to Editors: Images of minimally invasive robotic kidney transplant incisions vs. open transplant incisions are available on request.] - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: Study to Examine Obesity in Youth and Young Adults with Disabilities From: UIC News Bureau Date: 15 Dec 2010 10:33:27 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 15, 2010 CONTACT: Paul Francuch, (312) 996-3457, francuch@uic.edu STUDY TO EXAMINE OBESITY IN YOUTH AND YOUNG ADULTS WITH DISABILITIES While the nation's obesity epidemic is the target of many programs to combat it, few such programs embrace an often-overlooked subgroup -- adolescents and young adults with physical or cognitive disabilities. "There's a higher rate of obesity in this population," says James Rimmer, professor of disability and human development at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and disability specialists need to know much more about the causes and consequences of this significant health risk. Rimmer is heading a study group to tackle those questions, funded by a five-year, $2 million grant from the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research. "This is really the only study ever funded that begins to lay the foundation of how obesity begins in a disabled population, when does it begin, how does it progress and advance, and what are the anticipated consequences," Rimmer said. Data that have been collected by various groups will be analyzed in hopes of gaining a clearer picture of the problem. Rimmer's group will look at weight changes in youth with physical and cognitive disabilities, and see if it gets worse or better as they transition into adulthood. He hopes to tie those observations to predisposing factors and correlating effects. "Do they have more health conditions, more hospitalizations, greater levels of social isolation, less employment?" Rimmer asks. "If we don't begin to understand obesity and all the conditions associated with it at this earlier stage of life, we could end up imposing not only a hardship on the caregiver, but on the individuals themselves as they become adults and begin to live independently. And on society as a whole, where the cost of healthcare is going to be dramatically higher." Co-investigator Yolanda Suarez-Balacazar, professor and head of occupational therapy at UIC, will address cultural dimensions to see what effect they may have on obesity. She will also direct a team of experts that will develop cultural adaptations for promoting healthier lifestyles among minority youth with disabilities. Rimmer and his colleagues have also assembled a panel of experts that will develop recommendations on how to adapt existing programs and strategies using federal community health grants in order to benefit younger persons with cognitive and physical disabilities. Nearly 50 disability and health organizations have signed on to assist with the development of these physical, cognitive and policy adaptations. "In the future, as funding agencies develop new grant announcements, they'll use our expert-based consensus, adaptations and guidelines to require that people with disabilities participate in these initiatives," Rimmer said. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: New Nurse-Managed Clinic To Treat Underserved From: UIC News Bureau Date: 14 Dec 2010 15:31:13 -0600 To: diazm@uic.edu UIC News Release December 14, 2010 CONTACT: Sam Hostettler, (312) 355-2522, samhos@uic.edu NEW NURSE-MANAGED CLINIC TO TREAT UNDERSERVED The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Nursing has received a $1.5 million federal grant to open a new nurse-managed clinic. The clinic will treat underserved individuals as well as individuals with serious mental and physical illness, while training additional primary care advanced practice nurses. UIC was one of 10 nurse-managed centers nationwide to receive a three-year grant, provided by the Health Resources and Services Administration and funded by the recent Affordable Care Act. The new clinic, scheduled to open mid-January, is located at 2310 W. Roosevelt Road. It is the third nurse-managed clinic initiated under the college's Integrated Health Care program, started in 1998 with Thresholds Psychiatric Rehabilitation Centers to provide integrated primary care to mentally ill patients. The program's other clinics are at 734 W. 47th St. and 4221 N. Lincoln Ave. The new clinic, with four examination rooms, will allow for expanded clinic hours and services. In 2009 Integrated Health Care provided nearly 4,000 clinic encounters to more than 900 individuals, according to Emily Brigell, director of the program. The new clinic will more than double the number of patient visits and increase the amount of training time for advance practice nursing students. As a result, admission to the college's family nurse practitioner program will be able to increase by more than 50 percent, Brigell said. The number of qualified applicants to the program far exceeds the number of students the college can accept due to site limitations. The Affordable Care Act is expected to expand coverage to 32 million Americans who are currently uninsured. With the increased access to medical treatments, more primary care providers -- physicians or advanced practice nurses -- will be needed, Brigell said. A new Institute of Medicine report on the future of nursing said a strong foundation is needed to develop a nursing work force whose members are well-educated and prepared to act as full partners in the nation's health care system. The new grant, Brigell said, will help accomplish these goals. The grant will also allow the Integrated Health Care program to open a 'virtual clinic' at Dincin Center, Thresholds' largest day rehabilitation facility in Lincoln Park. Through the use of digital medical equipment and cameras, the clinic will be able to provide routine primary care, including follow-up on acute and chronic conditions, preventative health care, medication management and laboratory specimen collection, Brigell said. "Integrated Health Care has made major inroads into reaching this extremely vulnerable population, but there are a number of Threshold members who still cannot access primary care via us or other providers," she said. "The virtual clinic will allow us to connect with more individuals." People with severe mental illness are at a higher risk than the general population for serious health conditions, but are less likely to receive care. Due primarily to the side effects of antipsychotic drugs, patients with severe mental illness are at risk for obesity, hypertension, diabetes and chronic pulmonary disease. Diabetes is a health care issue of "epidemic proportions" in patients with severe mental illness, Brigell said. While 4 percent of the U.S. population has Type 2 diabetes, prevalence in individuals with severe mental illness is twice that and reaches as high as 25 percent in patients with schizophrenia, she said. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: Iapetus, Saturn's Strange Walnut Moon From: UIC News Bureau Date: 13 Dec 2010 09:15:26 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 13, 2010 CONTACT: Paul Francuch, (312) 996-3457, francuch@uic.edu IAPETUS, SATURN'S STRANGE WALNUT MOON EDITORS: Presentation at AGU Fall Meeting, Dec. 15, 8 am, Room 306 Moscone Center-South OTHER MEDIA CONTACTS: Diana Lutz, Washington University, (314) 935-5272, dlutz@wustl.edu Michael Buckley, Johns Hopkins, (443) 567-3145, Michael.Buckley@jhuapl.edu As space-based probes and telescopes reveal new and unimaginable features of our universe, a geological landmark on Saturn's moon Iapetus is among the most peculiar. Images provided by NASA's Cassini spacecraft in 2005 reveal an almost straight-line equatorial mountain range that towers upwards of 12 miles and spreads as wide as 60 miles, encircling more than 75 percent of Iapetus, the ringed planet's third-largest moon, and causing it to resemble a walnut. "There's nothing else like it in the solar system," said Andrew Dombard, associate professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois at Chicago. "It's something we've never seen before and didn't expect to see." Some scientists have hypothesized that Iapetus's mountains were formed by internal forces such as volcanism, but Dombard, along with Andrew Cheng, chief scientist in the space department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, William McKinnon, professor of earth and planetary sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and Jonathan Kay, a UIC graduate student studying with Dombard, think the mountains resulted from icy debris raining down from a sub-satellite or mini-moon orbiting Iapetus, which burst into bits under tidal forces of the larger moon. "Imagine all of these particles coming down horizontally across the equatorial surface at about 400 meters per second -- the speed of a rifle bullet, one after another, like frozen baseballs," said McKinnon. "At first the debris would have made holes to form a groove that eventually filled up." Dombard and his collaborators think the phenomenon is the result of what planetary scientists call a giant impact, where crashing and coalescing debris during the solar system's formation more than 4 billion years ago created satellites such as the Earth's Moon and Pluto's largest satellite Charon. They've done a preliminary analysis demonstrating the plausibility of impact formation and subsequent evolution of Iapetus's sub-satellite. Dombard said Iapetus is the solar system's moon with the largest "hill sphere" -- the zone surrounding a moon where the gravitational force is stronger than that of the planet it circles. "It is the only moon far enough from its planet, and large enough relative to its planet, that a giant impact may be able to form a sub-satellite," said Cheng. This lends plausibility to the rain of debris along the equator hypothesis, Dombard said, but he adds that more sophisticated computer modeling and analysis is planned in the coming years to back it up. Other explanations have been proposed by scientists as to what caused this odd formation of mountains on Iapetus, but Dombard said they all have shortcomings. "There are three critical observations that you need to explain," he said. "Why the mountains sit on the equator, why it's found only on the equator, and why only on Iapetus? Previous models address maybe one or two of those critical observations. We think we can explain all three." The planetary scientists will present details of their model Dec. 15 at the American Geophysical Union's fall meeting in San Francisco. EDITORS: An audio podcast on this subject is available on request. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: Noted Jazz Vocalist Joins UIC Faculty From: UIC News Bureau Date: 9 Dec 2010 15:26:42 -0600 To: diazm@uic.edu UIC News Release December 9, 2010 CONTACT: Anne Brooks Ranallo, (312) 355-2523, aranallo@uic.edu NOTED JAZZ VOCALIST JOINS UIC FACULTY Patricia Barber, an internationally renowned jazz vocalist, pianist and composer, has joined the University of Illinois at Chicago as lecturer in vocal jazz. The New York Times has called Barber a "literary critic, philosophy student, and needling social commentator rolled into one." She received a Guggenheim Fellowship for composition in 2003. Barber has performed at Carnegie Hall, Herbst Hall in San Francisco, the Opera Comique and Cite de la Musique in Paris, major concert halls in Istanbul, Moscow and Seoul, and at the Umbria Jazz Festival in Orvieto and North Sea Jazz Festival in Rotterdam. She has also performed at the New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Monterey, Paris, Nice, Dublin and Vancouver jazz festivals. Locally, she performs regularly at the Green Mill. Barber's repertoire includes original compositions and standards drawn from many genres. She records on Blue Note Records, where her most recent album, "The Cole Porter Mix," combines classic Cole Porter songs with three of her own compositions inspired by Porter. Her 2006 album, "Mythologies," is a based on Ovid's "Metamorphoses." Her previous label, Premonition Records, in 2007 released a three-disc box set of her recordings divided into originals, standards, and pop. "The Premonition Years: 1994-2002" includes previously unreleased tracks and songs from her earlier albums, "Cafe Blue," "Modern Cool," "Companion," "Nightclub" and "Verse." UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, please visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: UIC Researcher Unveils New Approach to Blocking Malaria Transmission From: UIC News Bureau Date: 6 Dec 2010 14:39:52 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 4, 2010 CONTACT: Sherri McGinnis González, (312) 996-8277, smcginn@uic.edu UIC RESEARCHER UNVEILS NEW APPROACH TO BLOCKING MALARIA TRANSMISSION Embargoed for Release: Saturday, Dec. 4, 8 a.m. EST University of Illinois at Chicago researcher Dr. John Quigley will describe a promising new approach to blocking malaria transmission during the American Society of Hematology's annual meeting in Orlando, Fla. Quigley will speak at a press briefing Saturday, Dec. 4, at 8 a.m. at the Orange County Convention Center, 9800 International Drive, Room 208C (West Building). His abstract, "Anopheline Orthologs of the Human Erythroid Heme Exporter, FLVCR, Export Heme: Potential Targets to Inhibit Plasmodium Transmission," will be presented at the plenary session Sunday. The research focuses on potential targets to inhibit transmission of the parasite Plasmodium that causes malaria. Female mosquitoes ingest large amounts of hemoglobin that serves as a food source required for mosquito egg development. When a mosquito ingests infected blood, Plasmodium reproduces in the mosquito gut. Plasmodium fertilized egg cells cross the lining of the mosquito gut and develop into oocysts. After maturing, the oocysts rupture and release thousands of parasites that allow the mosquito to transmit malaria when it bites another human. Previous studies have shown that mosquitoes with increased oxidative stress in their midgut are resistant to Plasmodium transmission. Quigley and his colleagues hypothesize that if they can disrupt the function of a cell-surface transport protein called FLVCR that pumps heme out of the cell, it will increase the oxidative stress in the mosquito gut and hamper Plasmodium at a crucial point in the parasite's life cycle. The researchers isolated the FLVCR gene from two common malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and showed that the gene encodes a protein that exports heme and protects cells from oxidative stress. Using gene-silencing techniques, they were able to significantly reduce levels of FLVCR in the mosquito gut. "If disruption of the function of the protein inhibits parasite transmission, then we can potentially use parts of the protein as an antigen to try to stimulate a vaccine in people," said Quigley, who is assistant professor of medicine at the UIC College of Medicine and senior author of the study. "So the antibody blocks FLVCR and increases oxidative stress, and now the Plasmodium is not able to complete its life cycle, thus preventing the spread of malaria." Quigley's research is ongoing, and future studies will focus on whether inhibiting FLVCR can block Plasmodium transmission. The research, he says, may be applicable to all blood-eating insects that cause a variety of diseases, such as West Nile Virus, dengue fever and leishmaniasis. Quigley is a member of the UIC Cancer Center. UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: UIC Receives $2 Million Grant to Expand Family Medicine Program From: UIC News Bureau Date: 1 Dec 2010 13:44:19 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 1, 2010 CONTACT: Jeanne Galatzer-Levy, (312) 996-1583, jgala@uic.edu UIC RECEIVES $2 MILLION GRANT TO EXPAND FAMILY MEDICINE PROGRAM The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine has received a $1.92 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to expand its family medicine residency program. The grant will fund two additional family medicine residents each year for five years beginning next July. The department currently has six residents in each of the three training years. The grant, part of the Affordable Care Act Primary Care Residency Expansion Program, comes from the Health Resources and Services Administration. The grant was awarded to principal investigator Dr. Memoona Hasnain, director of research, and co-principal investigators Dr. Mark Potter, residency director, and Dr. Abbas Hyderi, assistant clinical professor and assistant dean of undergraduate medical education. "This is not just a mechanical expansion of our program," Hasnain said. "We will be able to refine and improve our curriculum with a focus on training and developing more competent and caring providers with special skills for providing quality care to underserved populations." The grant will offer the opportunity to enhance teaching in health communication, health literacy, global health and women’s health, as well as expand the resident scholarship program. "This grant builds on the successes of the department in educational innovation and excellence," Hasnain said. "Much of what we will be developing in underserved medicine for residency training has been initiated through our undergraduate programs, including the unique Patient-centered Medicine Scholars Program." Hasnain says the goal is to engage residents in educational experiences that enable them to acquire core attitudes, values and competencies related to providing high-quality, patient-centered, culturally appropriate care to all patients, particularly those who are underserved and vulnerable. According to Potter, half of the department’s graduates in the last six years have practices located in federally designated medically underserved areas, and 90 percent continue to practice primary care. All residency applicants are expected to have a history of community service, and that requirement will be extended to the residents brought in through the grant. "We’ll be putting these new residents into specific areas we already work in," Potter said. "For example, a central element of the new residents’ training will be the opportunity to work at Mile Square Health Center throughout the three years of their residency training." As a federally qualified health center, Mile Square provides care to an underserved population, including people without health insurance or covered by Medicare and Medicaid. It offers a full spectrum of medical, dental and psychiatric services and has a community board with patient representation. "Learning to work with the community they are serving is an important aspect of the training offered by UIC," Potter said. "The selection of trainees with potential for this work, coupled with training in underserved medicine throughout residency training, increases the likelihood that our graduates will go on to provide primary care to underserved populations." UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 26,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign. UIC Grant Funds LGBT Bullying Study.msg Subject: A Third of LGBT Youth Suffer Mental Disorders From: UIC News Bureau Date: 1 Dec 2010 10:52:05 -0600 To: archives@uic.edu UIC News Release December 1, 2010 CONTACT: Sherri McGinnis González, (312) 996-8277, smcginn@uic.edu A THIRD OF LGBT YOUTH SUFFER MENTAL DISORDERS One-third of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth have attempted suicide in their lifetime -- a prevalence comparable to urban, minority youth -- but a majority do not experience mental illness, according to a report by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The study, published online and in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health, is the first to report the frequency of mental disorders in LGBT youth using the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Previous studies have relied on questionnaire-type surveys which, the authors suggest, may overestimate mental disorders in certain groups. The UIC researchers recruited 246 ethnically diverse 16- to 20-year-old LGBT youth in Chicago and conducted structured psychiatric interviews to assess major depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, suicide attempts, and conduct disorder. While a third of participants did meet criteria for at least one of the mental health disorders, about 70 percent of LGBT youth did not meet criteria for any mental disorders. "One of the most important findings from our work is that most of these youth are doing very well and are not experiencing mental health problems," said Dr. Brian Mustanski, assistant professor of psychiatry at UIC and lead author of the study. Nearly 10 percent of study participants met criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and about 15 percent met criteria for major depression. A third had made a suicide attempt at some point in their life, and about 6 percent had made a suicide attempt in the last year. "The big question is, are these youth more likely to have mental disorders relative to other kids?," said Mustanski, a clinical psychologist and director of UIC's IMPACT Program. "And the answer to that is that it really depends on who you're comparing them to." LGBT youths in the study had a higher prevalence of mental disorders than youths in national samples, but were similar to other samples of urban, racial and ethnic minority youths. The researchers also looked at differences between sub-groups of LGBT youth to determine if bisexual youth tend to have more mental health problems than gay and lesbian youth, or if racial-minority youth experience more mental health problems than white youth. Contrary to previous research that suggested that bisexual youth are more likely to have mental disorders than other groups, Mustanski found just the opposite. Bisexual youths had a lower prevalence of mental disorders compared with others in the study. The study was supported by a grant from the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Co-authors are Dr. Robert Garafalo of Children's Memorial Hospital and the Howard Brown Health Center and Erin Emerson of UIC. IMPACT, a program of the Institute for Juvenile Research at UIC, conducts LGTB research to identify health issues, understand factors that put people at risk or protect them, and develop programs that advance the health of LGBT people and communities. For more information, visit a http://www.impactprogram.org] [Editor's Note: An extended interview as MP3 audio file is at https://blackboard.uic.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/web/news/podcasts/PdC st79-Nov30%2710-Mustanski.mp3. Photographs of Dr. Mustanski are available at http://newsphoto.lib.uic.edu/v/mustanski/] UIC ranks among the nation's leading research universities and is Chicago's largest university with 27,000 students, 12,000 faculty and staff, 15 colleges and the state's major public medical center. A hallmark of the campus is the Great Cities Commitment, through which UIC faculty, students and staff engage with community, corporate, foundation and government partners in hundreds of programs to improve the quality of life in metropolitan areas around the world. For more information about UIC, visit www.uic.edu - UIC - NOTE: Please refer to the institution as the University of Illinois at Chicago on first reference and UIC on second reference. "University of Illinois" and "U. of I." are often assumed to refer to our sister campus in Urbana-Champaign.