Countywide : UCI Opens New Psychiatric Center

Looking to expand its role in the research and treatment of mental health disorders, UC Irvine on Monday announced the opening of an $18-million neuropsychiatric center on the grounds of its teaching hospital in Orange.

Dr. Siu Tang, chairman of the UCI department of psychiatry and human behavior, said the 81,000-square-foot center with state-of-the-art diagnostic capabilities and 92 beds is hoped to attract patients with mental problems that are especially complex and difficult to treat.

Tang said the center will reflect the strength of the university in the areas of schizophrenia and mood disorders such as anxiety and depression.

It will provide distinct treatment areas for children, adolescents, adults and the elderly.

Recognizing the demand to reduce medical costs, the new three-story building will offer a variety of settings for treating patients, from hospitalization to day-care programs and outpatient counseling services, UCI officials said.

Also, they said, the center is designed so researchers and clinicians can better collaborate.

“The reason we are excited about this center is that for the first time we can integrate the advances of neuroscience to improve the clinical treatment of patients with mental illness,” said Dr. Steven Potkin, director of clinical research for the center.

Potkin said the center has observation rooms outfitted with infrared cameras that operate in the dark and allow UCI physicians to diagnose and correct abnormalities in sleep and other biological rhythms that can contribute to mental illness.

“By interrupting sleep in certain stages, we can quicken the action of antidepressant medication so that it works in days rather than weeks,” he said.

Potkin said the center is designed with other special facilities, including a laboratory that will enable clinical researchers to monitor the effectiveness of experimental drugs that show promise for treating such mental disorders as Alzheimer’s disease.

Tang said that about 30 UCI faculty members with a broad range of expertise will have offices in the new center.

Before, he said, the physicians were “spread out all over Orange County.”

He said that starting next week, patients will be gradually transferred to the neuropsychiatric center from what he called an “outmoded” building at UCI Medical Center.