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Dr. Lehrer spearheads the department's major neurobiological
research efforts in partnership with the Wallace-Kettering
Neuroscience Institute (WKNI) located at the nearby
Kettering
Medical Center, home of fully equipped positron
emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging
(MRI) labs, including research-dedicated facilities
supported by a full staff of Ph.D.-level radiochemists,
physicists, and computer scientists.
Dr. Lehrer's group is conducting a number of investigations into
the neurobiology of psychoses, including the following:
- Study of pathophysiology of never-
and unmedicated schizophrenics using PET (FDG and fallypride),
MRI (structural, functional, diffusion tensor), neurological
and neuropsychological examinations;
- Study to identify biomarkers of differential
antipsychotic treatment response (again, using PET, MRI, neuropsychological
and neurological variables, as well as pharmacogenomic markers);
- Study of non-verbal language characteristics
of schizophrenic subjects using advanced computer-assisted
analysis of audio/video recordings; and
- Study of self-injury in women with
borderline personality disorder using functional MRI.
WKNI and WSU continue to explore future
avenues for psychiatric research, including active efforts to create
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and magnetoencephalography
(MEG) labs at WKNI. |
Douglas Lehrer, M.D. |
