Contact Information

UCLA Public Health/Epidemiology
Box 951772, 73-318 CHS
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1772
On-campus mail: CHS 177220
Tel: (323) 848-7881
Fax:(323) 848-7022
E-mail: dackerma@ucla.edu

Biosketch

My primary career goal is to apply the population approach of epidemiology to clinical psychiatric research and thereby to address questions of heterogeneity within diagnostic groups in terms of treatment response. Most recently I have begun to develop study designs to evaluate the effectiveness of psychotherapeutic and alternative treatments in which it is not possible to control a potentially powerful placebo effect, especially if the patient's or therapist's own expectations interact with direct physiologic effects of the treatment. I have also come to understand the current need for clinicians to understand the potential drug interactions between commonly prescribed antidepressants and the most common drugs of abuse. I recently became interested also in research to improve end-of-life care of patients with Alzheimer's Disease and other forms of progressive, incurable dementia, and in evaluating depression and other common psychiatric disorders as possible risk factors for neurodegenerative diseases.

Selected References

Ackerman DL, Greenland S. Multivariate meta-analysis of controlled drug studies for OCD. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 22(3):309-17, 2002.

Ackerman DL, Unutzer J, Greenland S, and Gitlin M. Inpatient treatment of depression and associated hospital charges. Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety 11(3): 219-27, 2002.

Ackerman DL, Greenland S, Bystritsky A, and Small GW. Side effects and time course of response in a placebo-controlled trial of fluoxetine in geriatric depression. Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology 20(6):658-65, 2000

Bystritsky A, Ackerman DL, Rosen R., Vapnik T, Gorbis E, Maidment KM, and Saxena S. Augmentation of SRI response in refractory OCD using adjunctive olanzapine: A placebo-controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Psychiatry (in press)