Welcome to the Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology at UCLA

The Laboratory of Brain, Behavior, and Pharmacology is dedicated to improving outcomes of treatment for psychiatric, neurologic, and other medical conditions through developing new methods to select the most effective treatment for each patient.   We aim to translate biomarkers discovered in the research laboratory to clinical tests that could be used in the doctor’s office or clinic setting to improve patient care. 

The major focus of our work is Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).  There are more than 20 highly effective antidepressants currently available.  The challenge is that for any one patient, the likelihood of a complete response to a single medication is only about 30%.  Many patients therefore suffer for months or years through a series of long, ineffective medication trials hoping to obtain relief of their symptoms.  Our results indicate that through monitoring of brain function before and during treatment, we can individualize treatment and select the medication that will most benefit a particular patient.

Other major lines of research include:

• Individualizing treatment for chronic pain conditions such as fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS)
• Identifying patients at greatest risk for treatment-emergent side-effects, including worsening of suicidal ideation with antidepressants
•  Understanding how some patients improve during treatment without the use of medications (the so-called “placebo response”)
• Elucidating which brain areas are involved in regulating the response to treatment
• Speeding development of new treatments for depression and other illnesses such as Alzheimer’s or Huntington’s disease, through development of biomarkers for medication effectiveness