RML presents
Dr. Pedro Martinez April 25 at the
Hamilton PAC, 7pm
As part of a community effort to elevate mental health and wellness discussion, Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) is sponsoring a talk on women’s health by Pedro Martinez, M.D., of the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD.
“Is this Normal? Navigating the Lifetime Changes from Puberty Through Menopause,” by Dr. Martinez is free and intended for a general audience. His presentation will describe the “normal” changes that occur due to hormones affecting women’s health and the mile-markers where things tend to go wrong, including depression, post-partum mood disorders and related psychoses at any part of the continuum. He will discuss what constitutes an actual disorder, the causes, frequencies, symptoms, and spectrum of treatments.
The event with Dr. Martinez will take place on April 25 at 7 p.m. at the Hamilton Performing Arts Center, 327 Fairgrounds Road. RML, an infectious-disease research facility, is part of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. NIMH and NIAID are part of the National Institutes of Health.
Following the talk by Dr. Martinez, Rachael Watters of Hamilton, who is part of the group MOMedy, will give a short “tragicomedy” presentation on motherhood – though a caution that it will contain strong emotional content that might not be suitable for people under age 15.
The topic of Dr. Martinez’s talk evolved from a community survey led by the Montana State University extension office, one of several partner organizations focusing on local mental health awareness. Dr. Maryland Pao of NIMH began the mental health outreach series with a presentation in January attended by about 500 people. That interest led to the community survey, which identified post-partum depression, effects of age-related hormonal changes on physical and mental health, and post-traumatic stress disorder as high on the list. RML is arranging for a community presentation on PTSD on May 13.
Dr. Martinez is the medical director of the NIMH reproductive psychiatry clinic. He is a physician with training in adult and child psychiatry with an interest in developmental and neuroendocrine mechanisms in mood disorders as well as adaptation to chronic conditions. His NIMH research focuses on the influence of sex steroids on the regulation of mood and brain function. His projects have included work on mood disorders related to the reproductive cycle in women (postpartum depression, premenstrual mood disorders and mood disorders associated with the menopausal transition). More recently he has studied the effects of the pubertal transition in the brain development of healthy children. He also serves as a psychiatric consultant for children and adult patients who have been admitted to the pediatric oncology and transplant units at the NIH.
RML initiated the mental health series following the fall 2018 suicide of the son of one of its scientists. Dr. Kimmo Virtaneva and his wife, Monica, chose to use their son Mika’s death to encourage people to talk about mental health, the latest research, and helpful resources.