Find a Provider

Is Best
Is Super

Specialty:: Adult Psychiatry
Department Affiliation:: Psychiatry
Hospital Affiliation:: Resnick Neuropsychiatric Hospital at UCLA
Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center
State License:: A37496
Phone:: 310-825-0207
Health Plans:: Accepted Plans

About Me: Andrew F. Leuchter, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Science, Director of the Neuromodulation Division, and a Senior Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA. A graduate of Stanford University, Dr. Leuchter earned his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He joined the UCLA faculty in 1986.

An internationally recognized expert on the treatment of mood disorders, Dr. Leuchter’s research focuses on the enhancement of treatment outcomes in depression. He directs the Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) Service in the Division, which performs more than 2,500 treatments each year for patients with depression, pain, and other neuropsychiatric illness. He is leading clinical trials to develop novel neuromodulation technologies for treatment of depression and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), including synchronized Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (sTMS) and Trigeminal Nerve Stimulation (TNS). He uses brain-imaging techniques, such as quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and positron emission tomography (PET), to examine brain function and predict which treatments are most likely to benefit individual patients. Dr. Leuchter’s research program combines clinical trials with neurophysiologic and brain-imaging studies to inform clinical practice in the treatment of depression. As a Board certified electroencephalographer, he has unique expertise in development of biomarkers and has shown that brain oscillation patterns can be used to determine highly beneficial and individualized treatment.

Dr. Leuchter is a Diplomat of the American Board of Electroencephalography and Neurophysiology and a Diplomat in Psychiatry and Neurology with Added Qualifications in Geriatric Psychiatry. He is a member of several professional organizations, including the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychiatric Electrophysiology Association, and the American Medical EEG Association. He has authored over 150 scientific articles on topics including neuromodulation for the treatment of depression, biomarkers to guide treatment of neuropsychiatric illness, and theories of antidepressant action. He also maintains an active clinical practice, specializing in consultation for and care of patients suffering from treatment-resistant depression.

Primary Office: UCLA Semel Institute for Neurosciences and Human Behavior
Primary Address: 760 Westwood Plaza
Room 57-456
Los Angeles, California 90095
: Get Directions
: View Map
Phone: 310-825-0207

Medical Board Certifications: Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, 1986
Degree: Baylor College of Medicine, MD, 1980

Publications

Link to my PubMed Publications

Cook IA, Schrader LM, DeGiorgio CM, Miller PR, Maremont ER, Leuchter AF: Trigeminal nerve stimulation in major depressive disorder: acute outcomes in an open pilot study. Epilepsy & Behavior 2013; 28:221-226
Leuchter AF, Cook IA, Jin Y, Phillips B: The relationship between brain oscillatory activity and therapeutic effectiveness of transcranial magnetic stimulation in the treatment of major depressive disorder. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience 2013; 7(37)1-12
Hunter AM, Korb AS, Cook IA, Leuchter AF: Rostral anterior cingulate activity in major depressive disorder: state or trait marker of responsiveness to medication? The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences 2013; 25(2):126-133
Cook IA, Espinoza R, Leuchter AF: Neuromodulation for depression: invasive and noninvasive (deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, trigeminal nerve stimulation). Neurosurgery Clinics of North America 2014; 25:103–116
Leuchter AF, Hunter AM, Tartter M, Cook IA: Role of pill-taking, expectation and therapeutic alliance in the placebo response in clinical trials for major depression. British Journal of Psychiatry 2014; 205(6):443-9
Leuchter AF, Hunter AM, Krantz DE, Cook IA: Intermediate phenotypes and biomarkers of treatment outcome in major depressive disorder. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience 2014; 16(4):525-37
McGough JJ, Loo SK, Sturm A, Cowen J, Leuchter AF, Cook IA: An eight-week, open-trial, pilot feasibility study of trigeminal nerve stimulation in youth with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Brain Stimulation 2015; 8(2):299-304
Leuchter AF, Hunter AM, Krantz, DE, Cook IA: Rhythms and blues: modulation of oscillatory synchrony and the mechanism of action of antidepressant treatments. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 2015; 1344:78-91
Leuchter AF, Cook IA, Feifel D, Goethe JW, Husain M, Carpenter LL, Thase ME, Krystal AD, Philip NS, Bhati MT, Burke WJ, Howland RH, Sheline YI, Aaronson ST, Iosifescu DV, O'Reardon JP, Gilmer WS, Jain R, Burgoyne KS, Phillips B, Manberg PJ, Massaro J, Hunter AM, Lisanby SH, George MS: Efficacy and safety of low-field synchronized transcranial magnetic stimulation (sTMS) for treatment of major depression. Brain Stimulation 2015; 8(4):787-94
Hunter AM, Cook IA, Tartter M, Sharma SK, Disse GD, Leuchter AF: Antidepressant treatment history and drugplacebo separation in a placebo-controlled trial in major depressive disorder. Psychopharmacology 2015; 232(20):3833-40

In The News

Electric Patch Helps Some People with PTSD (Fox News)

Awards

Invited presenter, XXVII CINP World Congress, CINP (International College of Neuropsychopharmacology), June 6-7, 2010, Hong Kong, SAR
Invited presenter, 5th Annual HD Therapeutics Conference, CHDI, Inc., February 9, 2010, Palm Springs, CA
Invited presenter, University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health Psychiatric Update, October 23, 2009, Madison, WI
Invited presenter, North American Research Conference on Complementary and Integrative Medicine, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Wednesday, May 13, 2009, Washington, DC
Invited presenter, "Evidence-based Approaches to Neurophysiologic Testing in Depression," 20th Anniversary Conference of the International Society for Neuroimaging in Psychiatry (ISNIP), September 13, 2008, Frankfurt, Germany
Invited presenter, "Using Biomarkers to Change the Way We Treat Depression," Harold Visotsky, M.D. Memorial Lecture at Northwestern University Grand Rounds. April 25, 2007
Invited presenter, "Brain Mechanisms in the Placebo Response," Workshop sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and the Mind, Brain, Body, and Health Initiative. September 27 – 28, 2004
Grant reviewer, Conte Center Study Section, National Institutes of Mental Health, 2009 - 2010
Ad hoc grant reviewer, National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine, National Institutes of Health, 2003 – 2008
Fellow, American Psychiatric Association, 2000
Member, Mental Disorders of Aging Review Committee, National Institute of Mental Health, 1998 - 2000
Early Career Research Award, American Psychiatric Electrophysiology Association, 1997
Outstanding Research Mentor Award, UCLA
Award for Outstanding Research, June 1996, UCLA Research Conference on Aging. "NGF in Rats with Nucleus Basalis Lesions: Cholinergic and Quantitative Electroencephalographic Correlates," Holschneider DP, Leuchter AF, Walton NY, Scremin OU, Treiman DM

Andrew F. Leuchter, MD click here to update your profile

Back to search

Find a Provider

Find a Provider

Share this