Our faculty is passionate about research and eager to push the boundaries of what we know about the brain and how it works. Here are some of areas of study we focus on.

• Deliniation, natural history and characterization of rare genetic disorders such as Prader-Willi, Angelman, Alström and fragile X syndromes
• Autism
• Human and medical genetics
• Alcoholism, substance abuse and addiction
• Psychopharmacology and pharmacogenetics
• Depression
• Bipolar disorder
• Schizophrenia
• Eating disorders
• Health psychology
• Cancer and well-being
• Effectiveness of telepsychiatry and telepsychology
• Pain
• Suicide
• Clinical trials in rare and common disorders with behavioral and psychiatric problems

Published research

Here’s a sample of published research from our faculty.

2020-21

• Manzardo AM, Sethi R. COVID19 impact screening of patients undergoing medication treatment for opioid use disorder. Subst Abus. 2021; 1-7. doi: 10.1080/08897077.2021.1903656. Online ahead of print. PMID: 33798027
• Baldwin, I., Shafer, R.L., Hossain, W., Gunewardena, S., Veatch, O., Mosconi, M. & Butler, M.G.  (2021). Genomic, clinical, and behavioral characterization of 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 deletion (Burnside-Butler) syndrome in five families. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 22(4):1660.
• Steinle, J., Hossain, W., & Butler, M.G. (2021). ADAMTSL2 gene variant in patients with features of autosomal dominant connective tissue disorders. Am. J. Med. Genet. A. 185:743-752.
• Poje, A.B., Manzardo, A., Gustafson, K., Liao, K., Martin, L. & Butler, M.G. (2021). Effects of translational direct current stimulation (tDCS) on Go/NoGo performance using food and non-food stimuli in patients with Prader-Willi syndrome. Brain Sci. 11(2):250
• Ann Manzardo, Ph.D., was an author on a paper by Hartin, Hossain, Brown and Butler in the Journal of Aggression, Maltreatment and Trauma (2020) titled “Relationship Between Body Habits and Aggressive Subtypes Among Healthy Young Adults from the American Midwest.”
• Dr. Bruce Liese published an article in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment about “Providing Addiction Services During a Pandemic Lessons Learned from COVID-19.”
• Sullivan-Blum, Z., Stites, S., Kennedy, P., Swenson, M., Ault, K., Alt, M., Dietz, C., Rotert, P., & Ramaswamy, M. Stakeholder Perspectives on Linking HIV Pre-exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) with HPV Vaccine. AIDS Patient Care and STDS
• Butler, M.G. & Duis, J. (2020). Chromosome 15 imprinting disorders: Genetic laboratory methodology and approaches. Front. Pediatr. 8:115.
• Veatch, O.J., Butler, M.G., Elsea, S., Malow, B.A., Sutcliffe, J.S. & Moore, J.H. (2020). An automated functional annotation pipeline that rapidly prioritizes clinically relevant genes for autism spectrum disorder. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21(23):9029
• Hartin, S., Hossain, W., Manzardo, A.M., Brown, S. & Butler, M.G. (2020). Relationship between body habitus and aggression subtypes among healthy young adults from the American Midwest. J. Aggress. Maltreat. Trauma. 29(9):1059-1071.
• Montes, A., Osann, K., Tamura, R., Gold, J., Driscoll, D.J., Butler, M.G. & Kimonis, V. (2020). Genetic subtype-phenotype analysis of growth hormone treatment on psychiatric behavior in Prader-Willi syndrome. Genes (Basel). 11(11):1250
• Baker, E.K., Butler, M.G., Hartin, S., Ling, L., Bui, M., Francis, D., Rogers, C., Field, M., Slee, J., Gamage, D., Williams, K., Ure, A., Amor, D. & Godler, D.E. (2020). Relationships between UBE3A and SNORD116 expression and features of autism in chromosome 15 imprinting disorders. Translational Psychiatr.10:362-373.
• Forster, J., Duis, J. & Butler, M.G. (2020). Pharmacodynamic gene testing in Prader-Willi syndrome. Front. Pediatr. 11:579609
• Butler, M.G. (2020). Imprinting disorders in humans: A review. Curr. Opin. Ped. 32(5):719-729.
• Elizabeth Penick, Ph.D., and Ann Manzardo, Ph.D., were co-authors on a paper titled, “Young Adult Predictors of Alcohol Dependence Up to Age 53: A 44 Year Prospective Study” published in Addiction.
• Darren Garcia, a member of the 2020-21 psychology intern class, is the first author on the paper, “Deconstructing Criterion A of the Alternative Model for Personality Disorders,” which was published in Personality Disorders: Theory, Research, Treatment.
• Levant B, Villwock JA, Manzardo AM. Impostorism in third-year medical students: an item analysis using the Clance impostor phenomenon scale. Perspect Med Educ. 2020 Apr;9(2):83-91. doi: 10.1007/s40037-020-00562-8.
• Sethi R, Hoang N, Ravishankar DA, McCracken M, Manzardo AM. Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa): Friend or Foe? Prim Care Companion CNS Disord. 2020 Jan 30;22(1). pii: 19nr02507. doi: 10.4088/PCC.19nr02507.
• Butler MG, Oyetunji A, Manzardo AM. Age Distribution, Comorbidities and Risk Factors for Thrombosis in Prader-Willi Syndrome. Genes (Basel). 2020 Jan 7;11(1). pii: E67. doi: 10.3390/genes11010067.
• Sethi, R., Hoang, N., Ravishankar, D. A., McCracken, M., & Manzardo, A. M. (2020). Kratom (Mitragyna speciosa): Friend or Foe?. The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, 22(1).
• Ansley, B. S., & Sethi, R. (2020). Tapentadol: An Opioid of Abuse Acquired Online. The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, 22(1).
• Ravishankar, D. A., Calhoun, E., Sethi, R., & Din, A. (2020). Urine toxicology screen negative for Methadone metabolite but positive for Methadone in a patient on Methadone maintenance therapy (MMT). Asian Journal of Psychiatry, 50, 101969.
• Rodgers, C. D., Gul, M. I., & Sethi, R. (2020). Enhanced Metabolism of Buprenorphine in a Man Prescribed Prednisone for Crohn's Disease. The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders, 22(2).
• Kim, D. H., Ravishankar, D., & Sethi, R. (2020, May). Kratom and Hepatotoxicity-A Case and Review of Literature. In AMERICAN JOURNAL ON ADDICTIONS (Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 212-212). 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA: WILEY.
• Sethi, R., & Ravishankar, D. A. (2020, May). Buprenorphine a Safer Alternative in Elderly Population With Opioid Use Disorder and Chronic Pain. In AMERICAN JOURNAL ON ADDICTIONS (Vol. 29, No. 3, pp. 199-200). 111 RIVER ST, HOBOKEN 07030-5774, NJ USA: WILEY.
• Veatch, O.J., Bauer, C.R., Keenan, B.T. et al. Characterization of genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity of obstructive sleep apnea using electronic health records. BMC Med Genomics 13, 105 (2020).
• Rafi, S. and Butler, M.G. (2020). The 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 Microdeletion (Burnside-Butler) Syndrome: In Silico Analysis of the Four Coding Genes Reveal Functional Associations with Neurodevelopmental Disorders. In: Prime Archives in Molecular Sciences. Slawomir Lach (editor).Hydertabad, India: Vide Leaf. 2020.
• Genovese, A. & Butler, M.G. (2020). Clinical assessment, genetics and treatment approaches in autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21(13):4726. (July 2020)
• Butler. M.G. (2020). Classic Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and cardiac transplantation-Is there a connection? World. J. Cardiol.12(8):1-4. (Aug 2020).
• Oyetunji, A. & Butler, M.G. (2020). 22q11.2 microduplications: Two clinical reports and compared with similar cases from the literature. J. Pediatr. Genet. 9(3):211-220. (Sept. 2020).
• Rafi. S & Butler. M.G. (2020). The 15q11.2 BP1-BP2 microdeletion (Burnside-Butler) syndrome: In silico analysis of the four coding genes reveal functional associations with neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Int. J. Mol. Sci. 21(9):3296.