Speaker: Dana McMakin, Ph.D., Chair and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Florida International University

About the talk: This presentation aims to provide an illustrative example of how leveraging new knowledge about social, emotional and neural development can improve understanding and treatment of mental health problems. Focusing on peri-adolescence as a pivotal developmental phase that precedes a surge in mental health challenges, the discussion centers on the interconnectedness of sleep and anxiety, which are common precursors to this escalation. The presentation highlights 1) the clinical significance of sleep-in relation to anxiety in peri-adolescence, 2) how disturbances in sleep neurophysiology can bidirectionally impact crucial cognitive (e.g., memory) and emotional functions during this phase, and 3) the potential to intervene on sleep as a modifiable lever within a complex system of development to impact mental health trajectories.

Learning Objective 1: To describe the evidence base for prospective effects of sleep health on anxiety symptoms in peri-adolescence.

Learning Objective 2: To describe the need for sleep intervention in youth with anxiety as part of standard clinical practice.

Learning Objective 3:  To explain how sleep disturbance can bidirectionally affect emotion and cognition (e.g. memory) in peri-adolescents with anxiety, putting them at risk for cascading symptom escalation.

Learning Objective 4: To explain how clinical-developmental neuroscience frameworks can advance understanding and treatment of mental health problems.

About the Speaker:   

Dr. Dana McMakin is Chair and Professor in the Department of Psychology at Florida International University. She also holds a dual appointment at Nicklaus Children’s Hospital as a licensed clinical psychologist with board certification in child and adolescent clinical psychology. Dana leads an interdisciplinary research team that aims to leverage new insights about social, emotional and neural development to improve how we understand and treat mental health concerns that rise steeply in adolescence (e.g., anxiety, depression). Accordingly, the team’s work moves between multi-method experimental designs that characterize symptom dimensions of interest, to clinical or quasi-clinical trials that examine the use of targeted strategies to impact these dimensions during sensitive periods of development. The National Institutes of Health and several foundation (e.g., Jacobs) grants have generously funded this work since 2005. Dr. McMakin serves the profession as grant reviewer for the National Institutes of Health, an associate editor of Sleep Advances, a member of the editorial board of Behavior Therapy, and a scientific advisor for the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention.

The Center for Children and Families (CCF) has been approved by the American Psychological Association (APA) to sponsor continuing education for psychologists. The CCF maintains responsibility for this program and its content.

The American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) accepts CE credit provided by APA providers towards ANCC re-certification.

This talk has also been approved for up to 1 CEU credit by Florida Board of Clinical Social Work, Marriage and Family Therapy and Mental Health Counseling; Florida Board of Psychology and Florida Office of School Psychology.  

Provider # BAP 50-12872.