Department of Psychiatry Faculty

Tony P. George, M.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry Division of Substance Abuse Director, Program for Research in Smokers with Mental Illness (PRISM) Connecticut Mental Health Center Tel: 203-974-7362 Email: tony.george@yale.edu

Education

1988, B.Sc. (Magna Cum Laude) Biochemistry and Microbiology, Dalhousie University
1992, M.D., Dalhousie University Medical School
1992-1996, Yale Psychiatry Residency
1996-1998, Fellowship in Basic Neuropsychopharmacology, Yale University School of Medicine
1998, Joined Yale Faculty

Area of Interest

Co-morbid substance abuse and serious mental illness
Nicotine and Tobacco Dependence
Neurocognition
Clinical Trials
Clinical Psychopharmacology

My laboratory uses a translational approach to understand addiction vulnerability in patients with serious mental disorders such as schizophrenia, major depression and bipolar disorder. Our main focus has been on tobacco addiction co-morbidity and we have conducted studies in rodents, and in human volunteers with descriptive studies, human laboratory paradigms and clinical trials.

Our human laboratory studies have focused on understanding the effects of nicotine, nicotinic agents and cigarette smoking on cognitive endophenotypes associated with schizophrenia. We have shown that cigarette smoking selectively improves spatial working memory and certain aspects of attention in patients with schizophrenia as compared to non-psychiatric healthy controls, and that these pro-cognitive effects of nicotine are mediated by nicotinic receptor stimulation. Current studies are examining the effects of the effects of nicotinic allosteric modulators and agents which selectively elevate prefrontal cortex (PFC) dopamine function in smokers and non-smokers with schizophrenia.

We are conducting clinical trials in three areas. 1) Smoking cessation medication trials in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder using non-nicotinic agents and nicotine replacement; 2) Dopamine medications for nicotine dependence in non-comorbid smokers; 3) Nicotinic antagonists for the treatment of mood disorders. The conceptualization of these trials has been informed by the results of our non-treatment studies, and those of our collaborators.

Publications of Note

Sacco, K.A., Termine, A., Seyal, A., Dudas, M., Vessicchio, J.C., Krishnan-Sarin, S., Wexler, B.E., George, T.P. Effects of Cigarette Smoking on Spatial Working Memory and Attentional Deficits in Schizophrenia: Involvement of Nicotinic Receptor Mechanisms. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry. 62: 649-659, 2005.

Kalman, D., Morissette, S.B., George, T.P. Comorbidity of Smoking and Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders. Am. J. Addict. 14: 106-123, 2005.

Fonder, M.A., Sacco, K.A., Termine, A., Boland, B.S., Seyal, A., Dudas, M., Vessicchio, J.C., George, T.P. Smoking Cue-Reactivity in Schizophrenia: Effects of a Nicotnic Receptor Antagonist. Biol. Psychiatry. 57: 802-808, 2005.

Sacco, K.A., Bannon, K.L., George, T.P. Nicotinic Receptor Mechanisms in Normal States and Neuropsychiatric Disease. J. Psychopharmacol. 18: 457-474, 2004.

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