Webinar:
Meet the Expert No10

Prof. Alan C. Swann

"Lifetime and Instant: Temporal Architecture of Suicide"

Prof. Post attended the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School at Dallas, straight medicine internship at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York, research fellowship at the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, Psychiatry Residency at Yale University School of Medicine, and initial faculty appointment as assistant professor there. He was in the Department of Psychiatry, University of Texas Medical School at Houston, from 1980-2013, followed by Baylor College of Medicine and Michael E. DeBakey VAMC.

Academic activities combine teaching, clinical, administration, and research. Teaching includes didactics, supervision, and mentoring of medical and graduate students, residents, and postdoctoral fellows, community education and support activities, resulting in Teaching Awards at UT and Baylor. Clinical responsibilities have included setting up an outpatient program, supervising inpatient and outpatient clinical units, and caring for patients directly and for consultations or second opinions. Administratively, I served on the IRB at UT Houston for 25 years and was Vice-Chair and Chair, and on Health Science Center, Medical School, Graduate School, and Departmental committees. I was Vice Chair for Research at UT Houston from 1990-2013, also serving on or chairing other committees and work groups. At Michael E. DeBakey VAMC I have served on the Research & Development Committee

Research (over 300 refereed publications, 87 chapters, invited reviews or commentaries) currently focuses on interactions between long-term and short-term mechanisms in the immediate regulation of behavior, especially regarding mechanisms of disease progression and of suicidal behavior. Preclinical human research includes impulsivity, sensitization, and regulation of action, both long-term (sensitization) and immediate (impulsivity). Clinical research, stemming from preclinical research, includes relationships of preclinical mechanisms to clinical characteristics and treatment of psychiatric, especially affective, disorders; interactions between episode characteristics and illness course; and related topics including suicide, substance abuse, mixed states, and combinations of addictions with other illnesses. Basic research includes pharmacological and developmental aspects of behavioral sensitization to stimulants or stressors, a potential model for recurrence and progression in psychiatric disorders. Mechanisms in sensitization overlap with those regulating initiation of action. Strategies include extensive collaboration to combine neurophysiological, behavioral laboratory, psychopharmacological, and clinical studies. Our goals include understanding mechanisms of initiation of action and of disease progression that cut across current diagnostic entities. My aim is to link basic and preclinical research to clinical research and observation to develop clinically relevant indices of brain function that will enable us to identify and treat severe psychiatric illness in a physiologically-based manner. Directly working with patients and with trainees is necessary for this aim. Research support has included NIMH, NIAAA, Centers for Disease Control, American Heart Association, American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, private foundations, and industry.