Biography

Alan Swann, MD, is professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the Baylor College of Medicine and Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Houston, Texas. Professor Swann is directly involved in teaching, research, and patient care. He graduated from the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas, in 1972 and completed a medical internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York. He then completed a research fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and a psychiatry residency at Yale University School of Medicine. Professor Swann recently completed a term on the National Advisory Council on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse and has served on grant review boards for NIH and for the Veterans Administration, where he was chair of the Merit Review Board on Mental Health and Behavioral Sciences. He is a co-founder and former president of the International Society for Research on Impulsivity. His clinical interests include practical diagnosis and treatment of severe and common psychiatric disorders and their relationships to other medical conditions. He teaches residents and medical students at Baylor College of Medicine and the affiliated Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center. His research support has included the NIMH, NIAAA, and the American Heart Institute. Clinical research focuses on treatment of affective disorders, especially prediction of treatment response and development of more objective measures of disease severity, its underlying behavioral mechanisms, and its change during treatment. Preclinical human research concerns the neurobiology of behavior, such as impulsivity and motivation, which may be basic to bipolar disorder and its most severe complications, including suicidal behavior. Basic research focuses on pharmacological and developmental aspects of behavioral sensitization to stimulants and other potential models for recurrence in affective disorders. His work has resulted in over 280 refereed publications, plus reviews and book chapters.

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