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Dr. Paul Verhoeff

Dr. Paul Verhoeff

President, PSA

Research Focus

 

Dr. Paul Verhoeff is a Staff Psychiatrist at the Ross Memory Clinic and at the Geriatric Psychiatry Community Centre at Baycrest. Dr. Verhoeff obtained his MD from the Erasmus University Rotterdam, and his PhD from the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Dr. Verhoeff specialized in psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.A. Dr. Verhoeff’s research activities have centered around neuroreceptor imaging in vivo with positron emission tomography (PET) or single-photon computerized tomography (SPECT) in patients with neuropsychiatric disorders and in healthy control subjects. The research projects are listed according to the neurochemical transmission systems that have been studied, with further clarification as to which patient groups were involved during which period:

  1. Cerebral β-Amyloid imaging with PET in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (2001-present) and with SPECT in patients with amyloid angiopathy (1991-1996).
  2. Neostriatal dopamine D2 receptor imaging with PET in patients with schizophrenia and in healthy subjects before and after catecholamine depletion with α-methyl-para-tyrosine (1999-2001), in patients with schizophrenia off and on antipsychotics (1999-2004), and in patients with major depressive disorder (2001-2004), bipolar disorder (1997-2000); with SPECT in patients with Tourette disorder (1990-1994), partial epilepsy (1991-1994), Parkinsonian syndromes (1990-1993), pituitary macroadenomas (1990-1993), migraine (1990-1993), HIV encephalopathy (1990-1991), in patients with schizophrenia off and on antipsychotics (1990-1995), in healthy subjects (1990-1993), and in MPTP-treated and control nonhuman primates (1990-1994); with a planar gamma-camera for dosimetry in healthy subjects (1990-1993); ex vivo in rodents (1988-1991); and in vitro in humans and rodent brain tissues (1988-1991).
  3. Extrastriatal dopamine D2 receptor imaging with SPECT in healthy subjects (1997-2000).
  4. Neostriatal dopamine D1 receptor imaging with PET in healthy subjects before and after catecholamine depletion with α-methyl-para-tyrosine (1999-2001); and with SPECT in healthy subjects (1991-1993).
  5. Cerebral serotonin 5-HT1A receptor imaging with PET in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (2001-present), frontotemporal dementia (2001-present), and schizophrenia (1999-2003), and in healthy subjects (1999-2001).
  6. Cerebral serotonin 5-HT2A receptor imaging with PET in patients with schizophrenia (1999-2000).
  7. Cerebral GABAA-benzodiazepine receptor imaging with SPECT in patients with alcohol dependence (1997-2004), post-traumatic stresss disorder (1997-2004), major depressive disorder (1997-2003), schizophrenia (1994-1999), epilepsy (1994-1999), and in healthy subjects off and on benzodiazepines (1988-1999).
  8. Cerebral muscarinic acetylcholinergic mACh receptor imaging with SPECT ex vivo in rats (1988-1993).
  9. Pituitary somatostatin receptor imaging with SPECT in patients with pituitary adenomas and in healthy subjects (1992-1996).
  10. Cerebral blood flow imaging with SPECT in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (1988-1992), partial epilepsy (1988-1992), and ischemic stroke (1988-2001).
  11. Physiological measurements of early and late asthmatic responses to submaximal exercise challenge before and after nedocromil sodium in patients with intrinsic and extrinsic bronchial asthma (1988-1990).

Learn more about ongoing research