The Center for the Treatment and Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders (CTSND)

ROCCO MAROTTA, M.D., Ph.D.

• Improve early detection, diagnosis and treatment of severe mental health disorders.
• Increase awareness among families, educators, health care providers, and others who can help identify young people experiencing mental health issues and find them appropriate assistance.
• Advance and promote the use of high-quality, evidence-based, and scalable treatment of these disorders.
• Focus on educating patients as to the long term need for treatment of these complex disorders and the importance of maintaining relationships with the primary provider team.
• Facilitate communication and long term relationships between the treatment team and families/primary caregivers.
• Foster and encourage other clinicians to emulate the compassionate, highly personal, team treatment approach that is the hallmark of Dr. Marotta’s work.

The Neuropsychiatric Program Brochure

The Center for the Treatment and Study of Neuropsychiatric Disorders at Silver Hill Hospital is one of the very few of its kind in the U.S. Curated in the past several years, the Center has a demonstrated successful track record of treating patients who experience persistent psychiatric symptoms that are unresponsive to conventional care methods. Given the complex nature of certain conditions, some patients need more personal and intense treatment than traditional programs provide. Every patient’s journey is unique, and we carefully develop treatment plans that support the time it takes to achieve our shared goals. Participation in the program marks the beginning of long-term stability and care. Patients often leave The Center on a path to reintegrate into school, work, and other meaningful relationships.

A warm, welcoming environment at The Center:

• Community living on the hospital campus with medical support always available
• Working, eating, and preparing meals together
• Group therapy
• Cognitive remediation
• Wellness services including nutrition, diet, and exercise
• Strong dedicated staff
• Complex psychopharmacological interventions uniquely tailored to each individual
• Family involvement (extensive contact with therapists), family support groups
• Integrative team approach (weekly Rounds, collaborative discussions, responsive meetings)
• Long-term trust and relationship with the treatment team (continued follow-up after discharge)

Returning to a meaningful and productive life:

After completing all stages of treatment, a high percentage of our patients resume their expected life paths: with consistent aftercare support, they continue to carry out healthy, safe, and meaningful lives after discharge (which includes work, higher education, and greater integration into family life).

Program Overview

• Minimum 6-week Residential Transitional Living Program
• All genders, 18+
• Serving those with psychosis, thought disorders, and mood disorders (with or without substance abuse)

The conditions treated at The Center include:

Schizophrenia – A psychiatric disorder characterized by a loss of appropriate emotional responses and the inability to organize thoughts and behaviors. It can also include delusional thinking and hallucinations. Read more about our treatment for Schizophrenia

Schizoaffective Disorder – A condition in which features of both psychosis and mood problems (depression or mania) occur together with the features of psychosis persisting beyond the episodes of mood disturbance. Read more about our treatment for Schizoaffective Disorder

Bipolar Disorder with Psychotic Features – A serious mental illness that causes changes in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Read More about our treatment for Bipolar Disorder

Substance-Induced Psychosis – A condition with various psychotic symptoms stemming from long-term substance abuse.

Levels of Care

We offer three levels of adult care that correspond with a patient’s level of need. Treatment at The Center requires a commitment to the time it takes to achieve lasting results.

Inpatient – Most patients begin their treatment at The Center in our inpatient level of care. The goals of this level of care are diagnostic assessment, crisis stabilization, medication management, and symptom reduction. The inpatient program at Silver Hill offers a high clinician-to-patient ratio so that patients can receive the individual attention they require and be prepared for subsequent levels of care.

Transitional Living – After a patient’s symptoms are stabilized in inpatient care, they enter our Transitional Living Program. Here they reside on campus for a minimum of six weeks and focus on cognitive remediation, psychosocial rehabilitation, and medication management. This program is designed as a step down from inpatient hospitalization, but they will continue to have access to an inpatient level of care, as needed at any time.

Intensive Outpatient – Silver Hill’s Intensive Outpatient programs are led by expert, licensed clinicians who have extensive training and experience in guiding patients who are working toward perhaps the most important goals of their life. All IOP Programs currently run for 8 weeks, 3 days per week with some tracks virtual and some in-person.

Dr. Marotta sums up the clinical work at The Center as he explains, “this hospital is a sacred space, an island where generations of people have come to heal. We never give up here. We use every means possible to help patients and their families. That is the magic of this place.”

Psychiatrists:

Rocco Marotta, M.D., Ph.D. – Director

Suma Srishaila, M.D.

Howard Weiner, M.D.

Nurse:
Thomas Frizzell, RN

Social Workers:

Jacqueline Ordoñez – Clinical Social Worker, LCSW

Katie Cervone – Clinical Social Worker, LCSW

Residential Counselors:

Curtina Alexander – Senior Residential Counselor

Elaina Cardascia

Mally Rhian

Kate Welzel

Stephanie Tingley

Francis Furmanek, LMSW

Research:

Katharine Cutts Dougherty, Ph.D. – Senior Research Associate

Lisa Mann, Ph.D.

Pharmacy:

Douglas Jackens, PharmD.

Admission:

Barbara Carlson, LMSW

Administration:

Katie Suss

Consulting Psychologist:

David Rowe, Ph.D.

Thomas Landino, Ph.D.

Renowned Center Director, Rocco Marotta, MD, PhD, and his clinical team have developed uniquely successful methods for treating those schizophrenia spectrum disorders. After treatment, it is a possibility that patients can return to school or work and effectively navigate interpersonal relationships. These results are highly unusual, and a goal of the Center is to enable others to achieve similar success.

Already, the Center has already made substantial progress toward this goal. Dr. Marotta’s work has included many publications and presentations of his specific treatment protocol:

Publications:

Marotta R, Buono F, Garakani A, Collins E, Cerrito B, Rowe D. The effects of augmenting clozapine with oxytocin in schizophrenia: An initial case series. Annals of Clinical Psychiatry, 2020, 32: 90-96.

Garakani A, Buono FD, Marotta RF. Sublingual oxytocin with clozapine in a patient with persisting psychotic symptoms, suicidal thinking with self-harm. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, 2020, 40(5): 507-509.

Marotta R, Cutts Dougherty K, Bihl I, Rowe D, Garakani A, Buono FD.  (2020). Can Augmented Sublingual Oxytocin Decrease Negative Symptoms within Treatment Resistant Schizophrenic Populations: A Pilot Study. Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbaa029.758 

Marotta R, Cerrito B, Rowe D, Collins ED, O’Connell J, Garakani A, Buono FD. (2019). Concurrent usage of sublingual oxytocin and clozapine to treat the positive and negative symptoms within individuals with treatment resistant schizophrenia. Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, Orlando, FL. https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbz018.520

Presentations:

Marotta, R., Cutts Dougherty, K., Buono, F., Garakani, A., Brown, M., Stacy, W., & Mann, L. Long Term Effects of Clozapine and Oxytocin on Functional Recovery and Sobriety Maintenance in Treatment Resistant Schizophrenia (2022). 2022 Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, Oral Presentation.

Frances, R. (Chair), Levin, F. (Co-Chair), Marotta, R. (Presenter), Addressing the Common Course of Schizophrenia: Effect of Clozapine and Sublingual Oxytocin on Substance Use Relapse and Long- Term Life Trajectories. American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry 2021 Annual Meeting and Scientific Symposium – December 10, 2021.

Marotta, R. Oxytocin as an Augmentation to the Treatment of Schizophrenia with Clozapine: Improvement in Negative Symptoms and Life Paths. New York Presbyterian Westchester, May 26, 2021

Marotta, R. Oxytocin as an Augmentation to the Treatment of Schizophrenia with Clozapine: Improvement in Negative Symptoms and Life Paths. Grand Rounds Presentation, Silver Hill Hospital. March 17, 2021

Marotta, R. Oxytocin as an Augmentation to the Treatment of Schizophrenia with Clozapine: Improvement in Negative Symptoms and Life Paths. Grand Rounds Presentation, Institute of Living, Hartford Hospital. January 7, 2021.

Marotta, R., Cutts Dougherty, K., Bihl, I., Rowe, D., Garakani, A., & Buono, F. D. Can Augmented Sublingual Oxytocin Decrease Negative Symptoms within Treatment Resistant Schizophrenic Populations: A Pilot Study. (2020). 2020 Congress of the Schizophrenia International Research Society, Poster Presentation.

Virgil Stucker Mental Horizons Podcast, Season 3, Episode 3: Creative Psychiatry: Learn about the benefits of oxytocin for psychosis – Dr. Rocco Marotta. https://www.virgilstuckerandassociates.com/post/season-3-episode-3-creative-psychiatry- learn-about-the-benefits-of-oxytocin-for-psychosis

Professional Development:

Dr. Marotta and his team also conduct a monthly Neuropsychiatric Case Conference Program for Silver Hill Hospital clinicians. This program increases clinical understanding of treating patients with persistent psychotic illness, especially those who have failed multiple interventions.

These presentations and educational efforts have spurred interest in Dr. Marotta’s methods and resulted in three important new partnerships:

Dr. Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez, MD, PhD at Mount Sinai Hospital

The Center has funded a collaboration with Dr. Perez Rodriguez to study the absorption of sublingual oxytocin in the bloodstream. Approved by the Mount Sinai Institutional Review Board (IRB), this study will soon begin enrolling participants. 

Dr. Michael McGee, MD – Atascadero State Hospital 

Dr. Marotta and the CTSND are collaborating with Dr. McGee to conduct a feasibility study of this forensic hospital’s patients who have been stabilized on clozapine to explore whether adding oxytocin, sublingually, can increase overall psychosocial functioning that allows a higher percentage of patients to return to community life. The study protocol has been submitted to the IRB for review. Peter Fonagy, OBE, FBA, FAcSS, FMedSci, University College London, and Frank Buono, Ph.D., Yale University are also part of this research team.

Dr. Marotta and The Center collaborating with Dr. McGee to conduct a feasibility study of this forensic hospital’s patients who have been stabilized on clozapine to explore whether adding oxytocin, sublingually, can increase overall psychosocial functioning that allows a higher percentage of patients to return to community life. The study protocol has been submitted to the IRB for review.

Sage Healthcare Clinic is an academically supported organization that strives to provide best practices in a holistic care environment including Family Practice, Behavioral and Mental Health, Social Work, and Case Management. This clinic is attached to Bridgeport Rescue Mission, in Bridgeport, Connecticut

To learn more about the extraordinary work being done at The Center including treatments that offer a combination of intensive psychopharmacological interventions tailored to the unique symptoms of each individual patient suffering from severe psychiatric disorders, please contact us at (866) 542-4455.