Torres Wins Recognition for Attention Deficit Disorder Research

While most aspiring pre-med first-year students are laboring over Chemistry 5 problem sets, Rebecca L. Torres '02 is already celebrating the fact that her clinical pediatric neurologic research will soon be published in a medical journal.

Last summer, Torres spent 40 hours a week at the New York State University Hospital at Stony Brook completing research for a study she designed comparing the safety and efficacy of two drugs in treating childhood Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder. Torres submitted the study to several pharmaceutical companies, but said many may not have taken her seriously because of her youth and scant medical experience.

The evidence seems conclusive. After her mentor in the hospital's neurology department, Dr. Mary Andriola, sent the research abstract to medical journals without listing Torres' age, the study seemed to get the attention it deserved. Two weeks ago, Torres picked up the phone in her Holworthy suite only to discover that one of the journals was interested, so interested in fact that they wanted to include it in an upcoming edition. The research results and conclusions will be presented at a national neurological meeting and will be published in either the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine, or Pediatrics by spring 1999.

"She had a productive summer," Andriola said. "There is a climate in the high school she attended for such research projects."

Since her recent success, Torres is eager to familiarize herself with the science community at Harvard. She spoke about her research last night at the Women in Science panel for Harvard-Radcliffe's "Making an Impact" career discussion.

Torres said a number of factors led her work from relative obscurity to publication. Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder is a field that has gained national attention in recent years, but relatively little research has been done in the field.

"It was just the perfect time to get involved in [researching] attention deficit disorder," Torres said.

In her two-year, retrospective, randomized and clinical study, Torres studied the effects of two ADD treatment drugs, Methylphenidate (Ritalin) and Pemoline (Cylert) on 500 children from the database of Neurology Associates at SUNY Stony Brook. Torres spent afternoons during high school working on the study and, for the last two summers, devoted days at the hospital to conducting research.

She said the hesitance of professionals to take her seriously was not surprising. Even some of the older lab staff did not really grasp how much in-depth scientific work she had done until after the research was completed.

"They were really amazed by the fact that I was able to do such a wide-based study," Torres said.

Through her study, Torres determined that Pemoline has greater efficacy on children, with 92 percent good or excellent results compared to 69 percent with Ritalin. Her results also revealed that the drugs have significant side-effects, including insomnia with Pemoline and loss of appetite with Methylphenidate.

Torres, who was diagnosed with Juvenille Rheumatoid Arthritis at the age of two, was interested in science from childhood, asking her parents questions ranging from how joints in her knees worked to why the moon shined.

"She wanted to know all the answers," said Wanda J. Torres, Rebecca's mother, from her home in Setauket, New York. "I learned [while] trying to figure them out."

Wanda Torres said her daughter's childhood illness probably spurned an interest in medical research and helping people through scientific study.

"She's had a lot of pain in her life, so that's made her stronger in some ways," Torres said. "She knew what it was to deal with pain, and she compensated with her work academically."

Torres' experience in research began when she helped to start a chapter of the Westinghouse Preparatory Program at her junior high school. At Ward Melville High School on Long Island, she began extensive science research with a social science project on gender discrimination in schools, surveying 1,000 students in the area.

Soon after she was speaking at the SUNY Research Support Symposium in 1997 and interning at the SUNY Stony Brook Department of Psychiatry. In the middle of so many hard core science gigs, Torres even managed a guest appearance in 1992 as one of the final contestants on the PBS game show, "Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?"

Torres now plans to get involved in Radcliffe research programs. This semester, she has started to fulfill several pre-med requirements, is comping the photography board at the Harvard Year-book and the Independent and is already volunteering for the Science Girls' Club at The King School. The after-school program for elementary school girls will allow her to serve as a role model for younger students.

"I've been honored by the fact that I've always had women pushing me," Torres said. "I'd like to see more women get involved in science."

Torres herself hopes to pursue a career in neurology.

Fact Sheet

Name: Rebecca L. Torres '02

Originally From: Setauket, New York

Current Home: Holworthy

High School: Ward Melville High School

Childhood Memories: As someone who experienced Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis, Torres became interested early on in pediatric medical science.

Project: Her high school research on childhood Attention Deficit Disorder will soon be published by an established medical journal.

Curtain Call: Torres was one of the last contestants on the now cult-classic "Where in The World is Carmen Sandiego?"