Research at HCPC

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Research Services at The University of Texas Harris County Psychiatric Center are under the direction of Alan Swann, MD. Dr. Swann is nationally-recognized for his research expertise in the areas if bipolar disorder, anxiety disorders, biologic predictors of suicide and psychopharmacology. Swann is also the Pat R. Rutherford Professor of Sciences and Vice Chair for Research in The UT Medical School at Houston Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Dr. Swann is a native Texan who received his medical degree from UT-Southwestern, where he also took courses in biochemistry and genetics. He served a medical internships at Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital in New York, and was a research associate in neurochemistry at the National Institute of Neurological and Communicative Disorders and Stroke of the NIH (National Institute of Neurological).

He completed a residency in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, where he also served as a research fellow, until joining UT Houston in 1980.

He has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Research Service Award Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship, and has served as the principal or co-investigator on grants for a number of public and private entities, including the NIMH, the Centers for Disease Control, the American Heart Association, and the Stanley Foundation. He serves on the boards of numerous professional organizations and publications and makes presentations around the globe.

Patricia M. Averill, PhD serves as the Director of Research and Program Evaluation at UTHCPC and is also an associate professor in the UT Houston Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Her research interests include anxiety and related mood and behavioral disorders and dually-diagnosed persons with both psychiatric and substance abuse disorders. She is the Director of the Center for Patient Outcome Studies (COPES) at UTHCPC, which is involved in documenting patient outcomes data over time in a “natural” setting.

Averill graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Houston Honors College, where she also completed her master’s and doctorate in clinical psychology. Her post graduate training was taken at the UT Medical School at Houston and the UT Houston Hermann Hospital Pain Center.

She is a three-time recipient of the Dean’s Teaching Excellence Award at UT Houston.

Adel Wassef, MD, has served as an assistant professor in The UT Medical School at Houston Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and attending physician at UTHCPC since 1994. He is currently conducting sponsored research in medications for the treatment of the major psychiatric illnesses, especially treatment-resistant schizophrenia,

Wassef graduated from medical school and did his residency at Ain Shams University in Cairo, Egypt. He then worked as a general practitioner at the Egyptian Ministry of Health and completed a second residency in psychiatry. He completed his psychiatric residency in the United States at the University of North Dakota and the UT Medical Branch in Galveston.

Wassef has researched extensively in areas related to the treatment of depression and related mood disorders, and was the recipient of a National Institute of Mental Health grant to coordinate a series of continuing education conferences on the diagnosis and treatment of depression which reached several thousand professionals.