Assistant Professor of Psychiatry Harvard Medical School

Clinicn Investigator Asst Prf Home Base, Mass General Research Institute

Psychiatrist Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital

MD University of Sofia Faculty of Medicine 1990

autonomic nervous system diseases; brain injuries; combat disorders; creutzfeldt-jakob syndrome; dementia; dreams; frontotemporal dementia; haloperidol; muscle spasticity; neuroimaging; pain; post-tbi depression; psychophysiology; ptsd; single-photon; stress disorders post-traumatic; tbi; tomography emission-computed

I have conducted clinical research on sleep disturbances in hospitalized patients with dementia, on Huntington’s Disease, on neuropsychiatric correlates of TBI and served as a consultant to the NFL grant studying TBI.  In 2013 I received a NIMH career development award (K23) to study whether cognitive performance, MRI and DTI brain changes can predict the response to cognitive processing therapy in individuals with PTSD and co-morbid mild TBI. I am currently conducting research on biological markers of PTSD, memory reconsolidation blockade as treatment for PTSD, and novel treatments for post-TBI depression. I am currently PI on a R21 NIMH grant, Mismatch vs. standard intervention during memory reconsolidation blockade with propranolol: effect on psychophysiological reactivity during traumatic imagery. As the Senior Director of Research at the Home Base Program, I have established collaborations with several regional, national, and international researchers, which have led to funded research collaborations. I am building the Home Base research infrastructure. In the future, I plan to continue studying treatment effectiveness and mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases.