Research

Dr. Leuchter’s research is based in the Laboratory of Behavior and Pharmacology, of which he is Director.  He aims to enhance treatment outcomes in major depressive disorder (MDD).  A major problem in the clinical treatment of MDD is that fewer than 40% of patients have complete remission of their symptoms of depression with the first antidepressant medication.  Many patients must try a series of medications, or combinations of drugs or other treatments, in order to achieve remission.  The process of getting well may take months or years. 

Dr. Leuchter’s research program aims to shorten the time to achieve remission by examining brain function both before the start of antidepressant treatment, and shortly after medication has started.  Published studies indicate that by examining the state of a patient’s brain prior to treatment, as well as how the brain responds to a drug “challenge” with an antidepressant, effective treatments can be identified much more rapidly.  Researchers in Dr. Leuchter’s laboratory use quantitative electroencephalography (QEEG), as well as other brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET), to examine brain function and predict which treatments are most likely to benefit individual patients.  Learn more about this work at www.brain.ucla.edu. 

Other research in Dr. Leuchter’s laboratory aims to understand the mechanisms of the placebo response in MDD.  Up to 40% of patients with MDD show significant improvement in depressive symptoms during treatment with placebo.  The improvement during placebo treatment usually is short-lived, and is not as of great a magnitude as that achieved with medication.  Nevertheless, placebo response studies are important as they represent one of the few scientific approaches to examining interpersonal interaction, expectations, conditioning, and other non-specific factors that may contribute to the benefits of medication treatment.  Dr. Leuchter’s research was the first to demonstrate changes in brain function in subjects who improve during placebo treatment; these changes were different from those observed during medication treatment.  He now is conducting studies aimed at discerning the relative roles of interpersonal clinical interaction, conditioning, expectation, and medication in recovery from depression.  Learn more about this work at www.placebo.ucla.edu. 

Dr. Leuchter also is involved in research projects examining brain functional predictors of adverse reactions to antidepressants, including treatment-emergent increases in suicidal ideation.  He also is examining predictors of treatment response in fibromyalgia.  Dr. Leuchter’s work is supported by 20 years of uninterrupted Federal funding from the NIH.  Lilly Research Laboratories and Pfizer Pharmaceuticals provide additional funding for projects he has designed.