Researcher focuses on mental health
Epidemiologist Beth Moscato's work also examines untapped field of civil unrest

By JENNIFER LEWANDOWSKI
Reporter Contributor

The subjects may be somewhat unusual research topics for an epidemiologist, but Beth Moscato, a research assistant professor of social and preventive medicine, has made mental health and civil unrest among her chief research priorities.

"People who have a passion for what they're doing do the best research," Moscato says. "These (issues) won't go away and need to be addressed."

A pioneer in psychiatric epidemiology, she says one of her goals is to build a research base in mental health at UB.

"My mission is to develop very sound, systematic research on mental-health issues and mental-health disorders," explains Moscato, who says her work to this end is unique at UB. "For me, (mental health) is a very neglected issue," says the researcher, who designed and teaches a graduate course in the epidemiology of mental disorders and mentors graduate students who are preparing theses and dissertations related to mental-health issues.

These issues are gaining more recognition, Moscato notes, pointing to U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher's recent report on mental health that found that one in five people in the United States suffer from a mental disorder or illness.

One aim of her research, she says, is to demonstrate the prevalence of several common conditions.

"I hope it makes people more aware that these disorders aren't separate from mainstream medical conditions," she says.

Moscato, who joined the Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in 1996 after receiving her doctorate from UB, also has positioned herself on the cutting edge of another previously untapped field of research-civil unrest.

"Some people say it's out of the (scientific) ballpark," she says. "Some say it doesn't touch our shores. I don't see it that way."

Civil unrest in such places as Kosovo, Rwanda and Bosnia is worth scientific investigation based on its link with disease and death, she says.

Moscato, who presented a talk on "Civil Unrest and Public Health: An Emerging Research and Action Agenda" at the 1999 International Society for Environmental Epidemiology (ISEE) conference in Athens in September, says more than 35 million individuals have become refugees through war or civil unrest, and more than 4 million people have lost their lives in the past decade.

While the events in Kosovo and Rwanda lose media appeal over time, she says the long-lasting effects of such conflicts deserve more attention.

"I think over time there will be a response from a very diverse scientific community," says Moscato, who is organizing a symposium on the issue for the next ISEE conference set for August in Buffalo.

Through the course of her career, Moscato has worked in various settings, including inpatient, outpatient, community mental health and private practice.

"I really like a research agenda that tackles issues related to patients that I have seen clinically," she says. "The clinical background allows me to see patients-faces-while I'm doing research. Then I'm not working for numbers; I'm working for the people I saw (as patients)."

Moscato's focus includes both clinical and community settings. "You can't always limit yourself to a clinic or hospital setting," she says, pointing out that the majority of the people who suffer from mental disorders-even the most severe cases-do not seek professional help. "You have to look in the community, you have to go where the people are if you want good data."

Moscato's interest in mental health is broad. She has worked as a consultant on a three-year study of the physical and mental health of children evacuated from Chernobyl following the nuclear plant accident in 1986. She also serves as an associate research scientist at UB's Research Institute on Addictions, where she has investigated the relationship between depressive symptoms and alcohol problems among women in Erie County.

Her latest venture focuses on genetic issues concerning bipolar disorder-or manic depression.

Moscato is working with Carlos N. Pato and Michele T. Pato, associate professors of psychiatry and co-directors of the UB Laboratory of Psychiatric and Molecular Genetics, who have received a $4.2 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to search for a gene or genes that may be linked to bipolar disorder. Identifying the molecular basis of such a linkage could lead to advances in diagnosis and treatment of the disorder, which affects millions of people worldwide.

The Patos are conducting their research with the relatively homogeneous population of the Azores, Portuguese islands located in the North Atlantic about 1,000 miles off the coast of the Iberian Peninsula.

Moscato says the Azores were chosen because of their isolation and lack of migration from the islands.

"The local churches have family records going back five generations," she says, which helps in data collection.