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Elliot C. Nelson, MD
Current
Position
Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Education and Training
B.A.: Natural Science, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, 1982
Medical School: University Of Illinois College of Medicine, Urbana, Illinois, 1986
Residency: Psychiatry, Barnes Hospital, St. Louis, Missouri, 1990
Areas of Clinical Interest
Psychiatry, neurology, obsessive compulsive disorder in children, affective disorders, social phobia and alcoholism, tourette syndrome, depressive disorder, bipolar disease
Areas of Research Interests
Research involves genetic and genetic epidemiology studies of substance dependence and other psychiatric disorders includes focus on G x E interactions.
Study 1) An Australian-based study of adult twin pairs, full siblings, and parents that examines parental alcoholism and other predictors of offspring childhood abuse, and the routes by which these associations are mediated.
Study 2) An Australian-based case-control genetic association study of opioid dependence with inclusion of childhood trauma history as a risk modifying variable.
Study 3) A genome-wide association study (GWAS) of heroin dependence.
Study 4) An Australian-based follow-up to assess environmental stressors in participants in a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of alcohol consumption and alcohol dependence.
Key Publications
Nelson E, Rice J (1997 Jun). Stability of diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder in the Epidemiologic Catchment Area study. Am J Psychiatry. 154(6): 826-31. Full Article ->
Nelson EC, Heath AC, Madden PA, Cooper ML, Dinwiddie SH, Bucholz KK, Glowinski A, McLaughlin T, Dunne MP, Statham DJ, Martin NG (2002 Feb). Association between self-reported childhood sexual abuse and adverse psychosocial outcomes: results from a twin study. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 59(2): 139-45. Full Article ->
Nelson EC, Heath AC, Bucholz KK, Madden PA, Fu Q, Knopik V, Lynskey MT, Lynskey MT, Whitfield JB, Statham DJ, Martin NG (2004 Mar). Genetic epidemiology of alcohol-induced blackouts. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 61(3): 257-63. Full Article ->
Nelson EC, Heath AC, Lynskey MT, Bucholz KK, Madden PA, Statham DJ, Martin NG (2006 Oct). Childhood sexual abuse and risks for licit and illicit drug-related outcomes: a twin study. Psychol Med. 36(10): 1473-83. Full Article ->
Nelson EC, Agrawal A, Pergadia ML, Lynskey MT, Todorov AA, Wang JC, Todd RD, Martin NG, Heath AC, Goate AM, Montgomery GW, Madden PA (2009 Mar). Association of childhood trauma exposure and GABRA2 polymorphisms with risk of posttraumatic stress disorder in adults. Mol Psychiatry. 14(3): 234-5. Full Article ->
Funded Research Projects
NIDA(PI):Opioid Dependence: Candidate Genes and G x E Effects
NIDA(Key Personnel):Cannabis and Other Illicit Drug Use: A Twin Study
NIAAA(Key Personnel):Alcoholism: Epidemiologic High Risk Family Study - MOFAM
NIDA(Key Personnel):Gene Environment in Outcomes of Offspring of Twins with Substance Use Disorders
NIAAA(Key Personnel):Parental Alcoholism & Child Environmental Risk
NIDA(Key Personnel):Genetic Epidemiology of Opioid Dependence in Bulgaria
Department of Defense(Key Personnel):Advanced MRI in Blast-Related TBI
NIAAA(Key Personnel):Molecular Epidemiology of Alcoholism 2 - Big Sibships