Biography
Dr. Charles Zeanah has worked clinically and studied children exposed to violence for over 30 years. This has included studies of PTSD and related disorders in young children. He currently co-directs a program that intervenes with 2-300 maltreated children per year. At a policy level, he serves on the DCFS Internal Advisory Group and direct Tulane’s Early Childhood Policy Leadership Initiative.
Publications
Selected Publications:
- Nelson, C. A., Zeanah, C. H., & Fox, N. A. (2019). How early experience shapes human development: The case of psychosocial deprivation. Neural plasticity, 2019.
- Dismukes, A., Shirtcliff, E., Jones, C. W., Zeanah, C., Theall, K., & Drury, S. (2018). The development of the cortisol response to dyadic stressors in Black and White infants. Development and psychopathology, 1-14.
- Troller‐Renfree, S., Zeanah, C. H., Nelson, C. A., & Fox, N. A. (2018). Neural and Cognitive Factors Influencing the Emergence of Psychopathology: Insights From the Bucharest Early Intervention Project. Child development perspectives, 12(1), 28-33.
Selected Research Grants
2R01MH091363-05 Henry/Fox/Zeanah (Co-PI) 04/01/2018 - 03/31/2019
NIH
Effects of Early Psychosocial Deprivation on Mental Health in Adolescence
Grant amount: $589,625
In the current proposal, we assess the children involved in the Bucharest Early Intervention Program [BEIP] when they are 16 years of age and extend these analyses with the aim to predict mental health outcomes in two groups of children: those originally assigned to our Foster Care intervention [FCG] and those originally randomized to remain in the institution (Care as Usual Group [CAUG]) and we will compare their functioning to typically developing age-matched Romanian children (Never Institutionalized Group [NIG]). Using a variety of both brain and behavioral measures, we will 1) examine, at age 16, the long term impact of early institutionalization on mental health outcomes and the efficacy of our intervention in ameliorating the burden of mental health outcomes using an intent-to-treat design; 2) examine how the dose of institutionalization (percent time spent in an institution) influences long term outcomes; 3) examine sensitive periods in recovery from early institutionalization; and 4) focus particularly on risk taking behavior, substance use, and mental health outcomes.