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Suzette M. Evans, Ph.D.
Dr. Suzette M. Evans is an Associate Professor
of Clinical Neurobiology in the Department of Psychiatry at The
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Columbia University, and a
Research Scientist at New York State Psychiatric Institute. She
received her undergraduate training Syracuse University (1981) and
a doctorate from The University of Chicago (1987). Following completion
of a two-year postdoctoral fellowship at The Johns Hopkins University
School of Medicine, Dr. Evans worked at the Addiction Research Center
of the National Institute on Drug Abuse until 1992. In 1992, Dr.
Evans joined the Department of Psychiatry at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, and was a founding member of the Division on Substance
Abuse at the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Evans has
a long-standing interest in assessing the behavioral effects of
anxiolytics, including benzodiazepines, and more recently, alcohol.
Her second area of interest has focused on the stimulants, including
the ubiquitous drug caffeine and also cocaine. Over the past 10
years she has focused her major research interests on women and
the menstrual cycle. Her expertise in this area has been woven into
other projects and grants within the Department.
E-Mail:
se18@columbia.edu
Current Research Activities
1. Vulnerability to Anxiolytic Abuse
in Women. Dr. Evans' research in this
area is unique in that she has approached the issue by focusing
on different subpopulations of nondrug abusing women who may be
at increased risk. Her subgroups of women have included women with
premenstrual dysphoric disorder, women with paternal histories of
alcoholism, and women who are social drinkers. She uses the most
rigorous diagnostic standards to date that involve an extensive
interview with the participants and corroborative interviews with
first degree relatives. More recently, she has been recruiting women
with moderate depressive symptoms since they represent an at-risk
group for future drug and alcohol abuse. Further, she has not only
controlled for menstrual cycle phase, but conducts numerous studies
to directly address the role of menstrual cycle phase. In her ongoing
research, she is assessing women with single and multiple risk factors.
A unique aspect of this research is that she is using both behavioral
and electrophysiological markers to determine if these measures
are associated with, and perhaps predict, increased risk for benzodiazepine
or alcohol abuse in women. Further, these studies will determine
whether fluctuations in mood across the menstrual cycle interact
with these risk factors to modulate the effects of alcohol and alprazolam.
2. Laboratory Studies of Novel Medications
for Alcohol. In this project, Dr. Evans
is using laboratory models to assess glutamatergic and gabaergic
medications for the treatment of alcohol abuse. The laboratory studies
will involve assessing the effect of memantine, gabapentin and baclofen
on alcohol’s subjective, reinforcing and discriminative stimulus
effects, as well as reactivity to cues associated with alcohol in
non-treatment seeking moderate to heavy alcohol abusers. We are
studying alcohol effects considered to be important in maintaining
pathological drinking behavior. The first step is to conduct interaction
studies to assess the acute effects of the medications on alcohol
intoxication to determine the safety of the combination and to understand
the biological mechanisms contributing to the subjective, physical,
and cognitive effects of alcohol. The reinforcing effects of alcohol
are then directly assessed using a choice procedure in which individuals
will have the opportunity to sample and then choose between multiple
doses of alcohol or placebo. A small clinical treatment trial comparing
the efficacy of memantine to placebo, given in conjunction with
psychotherapy and voucher incentives in alcohol-dependent patients
is also ongoing.
3. Laboratory Studies Assessing Sex Differences
in Response to Cocaine. Although laboratory
data in humans is limited, sex differences in response to cocaine
administration clearly exist. Dr. Evans has been conducting studies
to determine whether the response to cocaine differs as a function
of menstrual cycle phase. One study showed that several positive
subjective effects of cocaine were increased more in the follicular
phase than in the luteal phase. We are currently pursuing the effects
of exogenously administered progesterone on the response to cocaine
in both women and men. These studies will provide data relevant
to the behavioral and neurochemical mechanisms underlying the binge
cycle of cocaine use, suggesting potential venues of further exploration
with respect to treatment of male and female cocaine abusers.
Thus, Dr. Evans’ research has two major
foci: 1) vulnerability to drug and alcohol abuse in various subgroups
of women; and 2) the role of estradiol and progesterone in modulating
changes in drug effects across the menstrual cycle.
Training Opportunities
Dr. Evans is a faculty advisor on Dr. Kleber’s NIDA-funded
Substance Abuse Postdoctoral Fellowship grant. She provides methodological
training in the design and analysis of research protocols, teaching
the importance of solid methodological design and clear understanding
of the data analysis issues at the early stages in the design process.
The research described above on the behavioral effects of anxiolytics
and alcohol can provide an excellent training opportunity for applicants
to the Fellowship program. In addition to supervising several research
fellows in the Fellowship program, she has mentored and supervised
Master's level clinicians on their independent thesis projects.
Lastly, Dr. Evans is the Co-Principal Investigator of the Division’s
Medications Development Center Grant. One of her major roles in
the Center is to oversee the pilot studies program that provides
funding for small research projects submitted by junior faculty
and research fellows. This has been an ideal mechanism for young
investigators to collect pilot data and eventually secure independent
research funding.
Selected Peer-reviewed Publications
Evans, S. M., Cone, E. J. and Henningfield,
J.E. Arterial and venous cocaine plasma
concentrations in humans: Relationship to route of administration,
cardiovascular effects and subjective effects. J. Pharmacol. Exp.
Ther. 279: 1345-1356, 1996. Abstract
Evans, S.M. and Griffiths, R.R.
Caffeine withdrawal: A parametric analysis of caffeine dosing conditions.
J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 289: 285-294, 1999. Abstract
Evans, S.M., Haney, M. and Foltin,
R.W. The effects of smoked cocaine during
the follicular and luteal phases of the menstrual cycle in women.
Psychopharmacology 159: 397-406, 2002. Abstract
Evans, S.M. and Levin, F.R.
Response to alcohol in females with a paternal history of alcoholism.
Psychopharmacology 169: 10-20, 2003. Abstract
Bisaga, A. and Evans, S.M.
The acute effects of memantine in combination with alcohol in moderate
drinkers. Psychopharmacology (in press). Abstract
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