Scott H. Kollins, PhD
Professor and Vice-Chair for Research Strategy and Development
Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Director, Duke ADHD Program
Duke University Medical Center
Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience
Dr. Kollins is a licensed clinical psychologist and maintains a practice through the ADHD Program’s outpatient clinic. His research interests are in the areas of psychopharmacology and the intersection of ADHD and substance abuse, particularly cigarette smoking. He has published more than 125 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals. Over the past 10 years, his research has been supported by 6 different federal agencies, including NICHD, NIDA, NIMH, NIEHS, NINDS, and EPA, and he currently holds a mid-career K24 award from NIDA.
Alison Adcock, MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine
Assistant Professor of Neurobiology & of Psychology and Neuroscience
Associate Director, Center for Cognitive Neuroscience
Dr. Adcock’s work has been funded by NIDA, NIMH, NSF and Alfred P. Sloan and Klingenstein Fellowships in the Neurosciences, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation, and honored by NARSAD awards, the 2012 National Academy of Sciences Seymour Benzer Lectureship, and the 2015 ABAI BF Skinner Lectureship. The overall goals of her research program are to understand how brain systems for motivation support learning and to use mechanistic understanding of how behavior changes biology to meet the challenge of developing new therapies appropriate for early interventions for mental illness.
Steven Szabo, Jr., MD, PhD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Duke University School of Medicine
Attending Psychiatrist, Psychiatry Emergency Medicine
Durham VA Medical Center
Dr. Szabo conducts government and industry-funded clinical trials and is currently an investigator for the NIMH sponsored Fast-Fail Trials (FAST-MAS), which is a flagship NIMH contract study employing an experimental therapeutic and biomarker approach to early phase treatment studies in patients with mood and anxiety disorders. He has published more than 40 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and continues to gain support from the NIMH and NIEHS. He is also passionate about psychiatry resident education and is the course master for biological psychiatry.
Angel Peterchev, PhD
Associate Professor Dept. Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences Dept.
Biomedical Engineering Dept. Electrical & Computer Engineering
Director, Brain Stimulation Engineering Lab
Dr. Peterchev’s primary research interests are in developing and modeling of devices, optimizing application paradigms, and studying mechanisms of transcranial brain stimulation for the treatment of mental illness, including transcranial magnetic stimulation and electroconvulsive therapy. Methods used in his lab or through collaborations with other researchers include hardware and software development, computational models, and experimental studies in a range of preclinical models and in humans.
Carol Weingarten, MD, PhD
Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences
Faculty Scholar of the Center of Spirituality, Theology and Health
Dr. Weingarten is studying the the impact of spirituality on mental illness. She has and office within the Duke-UNC Brain Imaging and Analysis Center and recently published a paper on “quantum cognition”. She is interested in writing a review article of empirical research at the intersection of Religion, particularly, Buddhism and Health. The plan is to submit the article within the first half of 2017, if a Psychiatry Resident is interested in collaborating.
Wei Jiang, MD
Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Professor of Medicine
Dr. Wei Jiang leads the Neuropsychocardiology laboratory at Duke. Her main research interests include understanding the interplay between the mind-brain activity and cardiovascular system, and discovering interventions that modify the negative impact of negative emotions on the cardiovascular system. Her research covers the spectrum of epidemiological cohort study, translational investigation, clinical trials, and implementational evaluation. Another research area of Dr. Jiang is to investigate effective methods for mental health task shifting in low and middle income countries, particularly aiming in China.
Christine Marx, MD
Duke Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Faculty Network Member of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences
Vice Chair for Faculty in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Chief, Division of Translational Neuroscience at Duke
Director, Durham VA Clinical Interventions & Metabolomics Lab
VA MIRECC Site Director for Physician Special Fellowship
The overarching goal of this research is to identify and implement new pharmacological and behavioral treatment strategies that are maximally effective for disorders impacting OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. This lab is also investigating candidate neurosteroid, other small molecule, and protein biomarkers that are potentially relevant to the pathophysiology and treatment of post-deployment mental health. Neurosteroid investigations utilize a highly sensitive and specific state-of-the-art technique that is mass spectrometry-based. This method can reliably quantify neurosteroids with a sensitivity of two trillionths of a gram (2 x 10-12 grams or 2 picograms). A number of pharmacological agents that are effective for PTSD and depression increase neurosteroids (including selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs), and these molecules may thus contribute to their therapeutic efficacy. Furthermore, certain neurosteroids enhance learning and memory in rodent models. It is therefore logical to target these compounds directly as agents for pharmacological intervention. Current randomized placebo-controlled double-blind clinical trials include a project targeting the secondary prevention of PTSD with paroxetine in OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. Additional studies that are now actively enrolling utilize a novel neurosteroid intervention to treat cognitive symptoms in Veterans with PTSD and schizophrenia. The Clinical Interventions & Metabolomics Lab also investigates the neurobiological underpinnings of suicidal behaviors and the role of neurosteroids in nicotine dependence. Improved clinical interventions are urgently needed to address the post-deployment mental health needs of OEF/OIF/OND Veterans. The primary mission of this research lab is to investigate new treatments that integrate both bench and bedside endeavors by translating basic science findings to new clinical interventions that will positively impact Veteran health. – See more at: http://www.mirecc.va.gov/visn6/Interventions.asp#sthash.KB3GtvUf.dpuf
Christina Meade
Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Dr. Meade received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Yale University in 2006 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in drug abuse and brain imaging at Harvard Medical School in 2008. A licensed clinical psychologist, Dr. Meade has extensive patient-oriented behavioral science research experience related to HIV/AIDS, drug addiction, and mental illness, with over 40 peer-reviewed publications in this area. She has conducted a series of studies examining predictors of HIV risk behavior in adults with substance use and psychiatric disorders, and the relationship between mental health and continued risk behavior in HIV-positive adults. In recent years, she integrates neuroimaging techniques into her behavioral research to better characterize the effects of HIV infection and drug abuse on brain functioning and decision-making. Dr. Meade is also interested in the development of evidence-based treatments, including the integration of biomedical and behavioral therapies, for reducing risk behavior among drug users. She is co-investigator on the Southern Consortium Node of the NIDA Clinical Trials Network, which works closely with community partners and colleagues nationwide in research and dissemination activities designed to improve the treatment of addictions through research and implementation of evidence-based practice. As a member of the HIV and Gender special interest groups, Dr. Meade works on projects examining HIV risk behavior and gender-related disparities among drug users. Given that most people infected or affected by HIV/AIDS live in the developing world, she has initiated collaborations to expand her research on HIV, drug abuse, and mental illness to South Africa.
