James Swanson, Ph.D. - UCI School of Medicine

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FACULTY

Adolescent Medicine
Allergy & Immunology
Cardiology
Critical Care/PICU
Endocrinology
General Pediatrics
Hematology/Oncology
Human Genetics & Metabolism
Infectious Disease
Neonatal/Perinatal Medicine
Nephrology
Neurology
Pulmonology
Child Development Center
Francis Crinella, Ph.D.
Ronald Kotkin, Ph.D.
James Swanson, Ph.D.
Sharon B. Wigal, Ph.D.
Tim Wigal, Ph.D.

General Clinical Research Center

Academic Address:
UCI Child Development Center
19722 MacArthur Blvd.
Irvine, CA 92612

Email:
jmswanso@uci.edu

James Swanson, Ph.D. - Faculty Profile

Position:
Professor of Pediatrics
Director of Child Development Center

EDUCATION

Graduate Education:
Ph.D., Ohio State University

MEMBERSHIPS & AFFILIATIONS

Professional Societies:
Senior Fellow, Sackler Institute at Cornell University

RESEARCH

Summary:

Since 2005, Dr. Swanson’s research efforts have been devoted primarily to the National Children’s Study (NCS), a prospective study of the health and development of 100,000 children identified before birth and followed until the age of 21 years. Before 2005, his research and clinical efforts were focused of the assessment and treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Dr. Swanson initiated several collaborative projects at UCI in the area of ADHD: (1) in 1983 with Steve Simpson and Ron Kotkin, a school-based treatment program for children with ADHD; (2) in 1990 with Tim Wigal, a research program for evaluating effects of stimulant medication and conducting multisite trials of interventions for ADHD; (3) in 1995 with Robert Moyzis, a research program to investigate the molecular genetics of ADHD; (4) in 1997 with Sharon Wigal, a clinical trials program for the design and evaluation of new medications for ADHD; (5) in 2001 with Leanne Tamm, the expansion of a large screening and service delivery program for preschool children with ADHD that included community parent education and “attention training” for children at risk for ADHD.

These programs resulted in some major clinical and scientific contributions in several areas: (1) in the area of behavioral intervention, the UCI school-based treatment program (Swanson et al, 1990; Swanson, 1992); (2) in the area of assessment and treatment of ADHD, reviews of the long history of use of stimulant medications (Swanson, et al, 1993) and the evolving definition of ADHD (Swanson et al, 1998), participation in the multisite Multimodal Treatment study of ADHD (MTA) (MTA Group, 1999a,b; 2004a,b; Swanson et al, 2001), and participation in the Preschool ADHD Treatment Study (PATS) (Greenhill et al, 2006; Kollins et al, 2006; Swanson et al, 2006; Wigal et al, 2006); (3) in the area of molecular genetics, the discovery of association of ADHD with the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene (LaHoste et al, 1996), the first replication of what is now the most replicated finding in psychiatric genetics (Swanson et al, 1998), the first suggestion of functional significance of 7-repeat allele of the 48 bp VNTR polymorphism in exon 3 of the DRD4 gene (Swanson et al, 2000), and documentation of signs of positive selection for this “risk” allele (Ding et al, 2001; Grady et al, 2003; Wang et al, 2004); (4) in clinical pharmacology, the development of the laboratory school paradigm (Swanson et al, 1999; Swanson et al, 2002), the discovery of acute tolerance to stimulant medication (Swanson et al, 1999), the design of a new drug delivery profile based on proof of concept studies (Swanson et al, 2002) and proof of product studies (Swanson et al, 2000; Swanson et al, 2003), and the development of other stimulant formulations (Swanson et al, 1998; Wigal et al, 2003; Wigal et al, 2004; Swanson et al, 2004) and non-stimulant medications (Swanson et al, 2006) for the treatment of ADHD; (5) in the area of service delivery, development of the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC) and UC Irvine (UCI) Initiative for the Development of Attention and Readiness (CUIDAR) to deliver parent training and attention training in a community-based model for early intervention (“service before diagnosis”) for the Children and Families Commission (CFC) of Orange County (Tamm et al, 2005).

In December 2004, Dr. Swanson led a group of investigators from UCI, CHOC, and CFC to respond to the request for proposals for Vanguard Centers of the National Children’s Study (www.naitonalchildrensstudy.gov), an extraordinary project with the ambitious goal of identifying 100,000 children (1,000 at each of 100 sites across the USA) before birth and to follow this cohort of children who will represent the future population of the USA to determine the developmental course during pregnancy, at birth, and through childhood and adolescence until the age of 21 years. In September 2005 the Orange County CA (OCCA) site was chosen to be of the 7 Vanguard Centers to initiate this historic study of factors that are associated with health and development in modern environments in the USA. As the Principal Investigator of the OCCA Vanguard Center, Dr. Swanson serves on the Steering Committee of the National Children’s Study.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

1. Swanson JM, Simpson S, Agler D, Kotkin R, Pfiffner L, Bender M, et al. (1990). UCI-OCDE School-based treatment program for children with ADHD/ODD. Excerpta Medica International Congress Series: VIIIth World Congress of Psychiatry, 1: 1007-1012.

2. Swanson, JM. (1992). School-based Assessments and Interventions for ADD students. Irvine, CA: K.C. Publishing.

3. Swanson JM, McBurnett K, Wigal T, Pfiffner LJ, Lerner MA, Williams L, Christian D, Tamm L, Willcutt E, Crowley K, Clevenger W, Khouzam N, Woo C, Crinella FM, Fisher, TD. (1993). Effect of stimulant medication on children with attention deficit disorder: A "Review of Reviews". Exceptional Children, 60: 154-162.

4. Swanson JM, McBurnett K, Christian DL, Wigal, T. (1995). Stimulant Medications and the Treatment of Children with ADHD. Advances in Clinical Child Psychology, 17: 265-322.

5. LaHoste GJ, Swanson JM, Wigal SB, Glabe C, Wigal T, King N, Kennedy JL. (1996). Dopamine D4 receptor gene polymorphism is associated with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Molecular Psychiatry, 1: 121-124.

6. Swanson JM, Sergeant JA, Taylor E, Sonuga-Barke EJS, Jensen PS, Cantwell DP. (1998). Attention-deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and Hyperkinetic Disorder. The Lancet, 351: 429-433.

7. Swanson JM, Sunohara GA, Kennedy JL, Regino R, Fineberg E, Wigal T, Lerner M, Williams L, LaHoste GJ, Wigal S. (1998). Association of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene with a refined phenotype of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD): a family-based approach. Molecular Psychiatry, 3(1):38-41.

8. Swanson JM, Agler D, Fineberg E, Wigal S, Flynn D, Fineberg K, Quintana Y, Talebi H. (1999). University of California, Irvine, Laboratory School Protocol for Pharmacokinetic and Pharmacodynamic Studies. In L. Greenhill & B. Osman. (Eds.), Ritalin: Theory and Practice, Second Edition (pp. 405-430). Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers.

9. MTA Cooperative Group. (1999). A 14-month randomized clinical trial of treatment strategies for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 56: 1073-1086.

10. MTA Cooperative Group. (1999). Moderators and Mediators of treatment response for children with attetion-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 56: 1088-1096.

11. Swanson JM, Gupta S, Guinta D, Flynn D, Agler D, Lerner M, Williams L, Shoulson I, Wigal, S. (1999). Acute tolerance to methylphenidate in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children. Clin Pharmacol Ther, 66:295-305.

12. Swanson J, Oosterlaan J, Murias M, Schuck S, Flodman P, Spence MA, Wasdell M, Ding Y, Chi H, Smith M, Mann M, Carlson C, Kennedy MJ, Sergeant J, Leung P, Zhang Y, Sadeh A, Chen C, Moyzis R, Posner MI. (2000). Attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder children with a 7-repeat allele of the dopamine receptor D4 gene have extreme behavior but normal performance on critical neuropsychological tests of attention. Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences, 97: 4754-4759.

13. Swanson JM, Kraemer HC, Hinshaw, SP, Arnold, LE, Conners, CK, Abikoff, HB, Clevenger W, Davies M, Elliott, G, Greenhill, LL, Hechtman, L, Hoza, B, Jensen, PS, March, JS, Newcorn JH, Owens L, Pelham, WE, Schiller E, Severe, J, Simpson S, Vitiello, B, Wells, CK, Wigal, T, Wu, M. (2001). Clinical Relevance of the Primary Findings of the MTA: Success Rates Based on Severity of ADHD and ODD Symptoms at the End of Treatment. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 40(2): 168-179.

14. Swanson J, Lerner M, Wigal T, Steinhoff K, Greenhill L, Posner K, Freid J, Wigal S. (2002). The Use of a Laboratory School Protocol to Evaluate Concepts About Efficacy and Side Effects of New Formulations of Stimulant Medications. J Atten Disord, 6(1): S73-S88.

15. Ding YC, Chi HC, Grady DL, Morishima A, Kidd JR, Kidd KK, Flodman P, Spence MA, Schuck S, Swanson JM, Zhang YP, Moyzis RK. (2002). Evidence of positive selection acting at the human dopamine receptor D4 gene locus. Proc Natl Acad of Sci U S A, 99(1): 309-314.

16. Swanson JM, Gupta S, Williams L, Agler D, Lerner M, Wigal S. (2002). Efficacy of a new pattern of delivery of methylphenidate for the treatment of ADHD: effects on activity level in the classroom and on the playground. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 41(11): 1306-1314.

17. Swanson J, Gupta S, Lam A, Shoulson I, Lerner M, Modi N, Lindemulder E, Wigal S. (2003). Development of a New Once-A-Day Formulation of Methylphenidate for the Treatment of ADHD: Proof-of-Concept and Proof-of-Product Studies. Arch Gen Psychiatry, 60: 204-211.

18. Grady DL, Chi HC, Ding YC, Smith M, Wang E. Schuck S, Flodman P, Spence MA, Swanson JM, Moyzis RK. (2003). High prevalence of rare dopamine receptor D4 alleles in children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder. Mol Psychiatry, 8(5): 536-545.

19. Wigal S, Sanchez DY, DeCory HH, D’Imperio JM and Swanson JM (2003). Selection of the optimal dose ratio for a controlled-delivery formulation of methylphenidate. J Applied Research, 3(1): 46-63.

20. Swanson JM, Wigal SB, Wigal T, Soruga-Barke E, Greenhill LL, Biederman J, Kollins S, Nguyen AS, DeCory HH, Hirshey-Dirksen SJ, Hatch SJ, COMACS Study Group. (2004) A comparison of once-daily extended-release methylphenidate formulations in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in the laboratory school (The Comacs Study). Pediatrics, 113(3): 206-216.

21. Wang E, Ding YC, Flodman P, Kidd JR, Kidd KK, Grady DL, Ryder OA, Spence MA, Swanson JM, Moyzis RK. (2004). The genetic architecture of selection at the human dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene locus. Am J Hum Genet 74(5):931-944.

22. The MTA Cooperative Group. (2004). National Institute of Mental Health Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD follow-up: 24-month outcomes of treatment strategies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Pediatrics, 113(4): 754-761.

23. The MTA Cooperative Group. (2004). National Institute of Mental Health Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD follow-up: changes in effectiveness and growth after the end of treatment. Pediatrics, 113(4): 762-769.

24. Wigal S, Swanson JM, Feifel D, Sangal RB, Elia J, Casat CD, Zeldis JB, Conners CK. (2004). A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of dexmethylphenidate hydrochloride and d,l-threo-methylphenidate hydrochloride in children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry, 43(11): 1406-1414.

25. Swanson JM, Greenhill LL, Lopez FA, Sedillo A, Earl CQ, Jiang JG and Biederman J. (2006). Modafinil film-coated tablets in children and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: Results from a double-blind, placebo-controlled, fixed-dose study followed by abrupt discontinuation. J Clin Psychiatry, 67(1): 137-147.

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