SIU Med School Physician Receives NIH Grant for Research

A research physician at SIU School of Medicine in Springfield has been awarded a three-year federal grant from the National Institutes of Health as part of an international study of dementia and Down's syndrome. Total budget for the grant is $151,320.

The study is a subcontract of a grant awarded to the Research Foundation for Mental Hygiene, Inc., of Albany, N.Y.

Dr. Robert J. Pary, SIU professor of psychiatry, is the principal investigator for the SIU portion of the project. This is his first grant awarded for dementia research. Pary's previous research in mental illness has been funded by the National Institutes of Mental Health.

The goal of the study is to develop a better understanding about dementia in people with Down's syndrome 50 years and older, who are at increased risk for the illness. Study participants will be given high doses of vitamin E for three-years to determine if it will stop or slow down the changes that occur in people who develop Alzheimer's disease. The research has important implications for developing new treatments for dementia in people who have Down's syndrome and Alzheimer's disease.

Pary joined SlU's faculty in 1994. He is board certified in psychiatry. Pary completed a visiting fellowship in magnetic resonance imaging at the Pittsburgh NMR Institute in Pennsylvania (1989), a fellowship in psychopharmacology at Tufts (1982) and a psychiatric residency at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston (1981). He earned his medical and bachelor's degrees at Loyola University in Chicago (1977, 1973).

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