Neurobiology of Personality Disorders

Christian Schmahl is Professor of Experimental Psychopathology and Medical Director of the Department of Psychosomatic Medicine at the Central Institute of Mental Health in Mannheim, Germany. His research focus is on emotion regulation, self-injurious behavior and dissociation as well as the interaction of neurobiology and psychotherapy in Borderline Personality Disorder and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Since 2015 he is spokesperson of the Clinical Research Unit “Mechanisms of Disturbed Emotion Processing in BPD”. He has published more than 150 articles and book chapters. Robert O. Friedel is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Virginia USA. His primary focus of academic work has been in the neurobiological basis and pharmacological treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder. He received his medical training at Duke University and his research training in biology at Duke and at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Dr. Friedel served as chair of the departments of psychiatry at Virginia Commonwealth University, the University of Michigan, where he was also Executive Director of the Mental Health Research Institute, and chair at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He has published more than 100 scientific articles, books and book chapters. K. Luan Phan, MD is Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His research is focused on the neuroscience of emotion and emotion-cognition interactions, especially emotion regulation, and in relation of psychopathology and treatment interventions. He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles.