Andrew Chambers, M.D.

R. Andrew Chambers, M.D. Associate Professor of Psychiatry
Personal Statement	Our work in the Laboratory for Translational Neuroscience of Dual Diagnosis & Development focuses on exploring causal mechanisms in the brain responsible for extremely high rates of addictions co-morbidity in mental illness. Because both addictions and mental illnesses are in large part neurodevelopmental disorders in which adolescence is a critical transition phase, we are also interested in how the adolescent brain re-wires normally, or abnormally, in mental illnesses as intertwined with the early stages of drug addictions.
Education	Undergraduate: Centre College Medical School: Duke University School of Medicine Fellowship: Yale University School of Medicine Board Certifications/Certifications: American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology American Society of Addiction Medicine
Current Academic Interests	Teaching: Medical student education in performing psychiatric examinations; psychiatric resident education in general neuropsychiatry, adolescent neurodevelpment, addictions and dual diagnosis; transformation of psychiatric workforce and behavioral health systems toward dual diagnosis capability Clinical: Care of adolescents and adults with dual diagnoses (mental illness and substance disorders) Research: Animal models of mental illness and addictions; behavioral neuroscience; motivation; neural network modeling
Recent Publications	Chambers, R.A., Sentir, A.M., Contro, S.K., Truitt, W.A., Shekhar, A. (2010) “Cortical-striatal integration of cocaine history and prefrontal dysfunction in animal modeling of dual diagnosis” Biological Psychiatry, 67, 788-792. . Epub 2009 Oct 31. PubMed PMID: 19880093; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2849854 Chambers, RA , Sentir, AM, Engleman, EA (2010) “Ventral and dorsal striatal dopamine efflux and behavior in rats with simple vs. co-morbid histories of cocaine sensitization and neonatal ventral hippocampal lesions” Psychopharmacology 212 (1) 73-83. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2921051. Chambers, R.A., Bickel, W.K., Potenza, M.N. (2007) “A scale-free systems theory of motivation and addiction” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 31, 1017-1045. Epub 2007 May 3. PubMed PMID: 17574673; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2150750.