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Elaine Peskind, MD

Personal Statement

I am Co-Director of the VA VISN 20 (Northwest Network) Mental Illness Research, Education, and Clinical Center (MIRECC). I am also the Friends of Alzheimer’s Research Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the University of Washington (UW) School of Medicine and am Associate Director of the UW Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. My research over the past 30 years has addressed cognitive and behavioral problems and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in neurodegenerative dementing disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. More recently, my research has focused on combat trauma posttraumatic stress disorder and the clinical phenomenology as well as neuroimaging and CSF biomarkers of neurodegeneration in combat blast concussion mild traumatic brain injury and in Gulf War Veterans Illness. I continue to conduct single site as well as multi-site large scale studies of CSF biomarkers and pharmacological treatment trials for behavioral disorders and traumatic brain injury.

Summary of my research program:

Blast Concussion Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI)
Strategies: multimodal neuroimaging: structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (diffusion tensor imaging [DTI], DTI tractography, macromolecular proton fraction mapping, resting state and task-based functional MRI; susceptibility-weighted imaging, FDG-positron emission tomography [PET]; cerebrospinal fluid and plasma biomarkers; genetic risk factors; clinical, neurocognitive and behavioral assessments,

Gulf War Veterans Illness (GWVI)
Strategies: multimodal neuroimaging and CSF and plasma biomarkers as described above, epigenetics, pain sensitivity testing and ability to activate endogenous opioid systems, and functional activity of paraoxonase I, the enzyme that metabolizes organophosphate insecticides.

Cerebrospinal Fluid and Plasma Biomarkers of Neurodegeneration Strategies: Bead-based multiplex assays using Luminex and Meso-Scale platforms, Quanterix ultra-sensitive platform, and broad-scale mass spectrometry for measurement of proteins, circulating RNAs, microRNAs in collaboration with VA/UW and Institute for Systems Biology investigators.

Pharmacologic Treatment of Disruptive Agitation in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD)
Strategies: Alzheimer’s Disease Cooperative Study multi-center randomized placebo-controlled trial of the alpha-1 adrenoreceptor antagonist, prazosin, for treatment of disruptive agitation in AD.

Department Affiliations

Recent Publications

Sympathetic innervation of interscapular brown adipose tissue is not a predominant mediator of Oxytocin (OT)-elicited reductions of body weight gain and adiposity in male diet-induced obese rats.
(2024)
Front Drug Deliv 4():
Edwards MM, Nguyen HK, Dodson AD, Herbertson AJ, Honeycutt MK, Slattery JD, Rambousek JR, Tsui E, Wolden-Hanson T, Wietecha TA, Graham JL, Tapia GP, Sikkema CL, O'Brien KD, Mundinger TO, Peskind ER, Ryu V, Havel PJ, Khan AM, Taborsky GJ Jr, Blevins JE

Dispersion-based cognitive intra-individual variability in former American football players: Association with traumatic encephalopathy syndrome, repetitive head impacts, and biomarkers.
(2025 Jan 26)
Clin Neuropsychol
Altaras C, Ly MT, Schultz O, Barr WB, Banks SJ, Wethe JV, Tripodis Y, Adler CH, Balcer LJ, Bernick C, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Ashton N, Peskind E, Cantu RC, Coleman MJ, Lin AP, Koerte IK, Bouix S, Daneshvar D, Dodick DW, Geda YE, Katz DL, Weller JL, Mez J, Palmisano JN, Martin B, Cummings JL, Reiman EM, Shenton ME, Stern RA, Alosco ML

Single- versus two-test criteria for cognitive impairment: associations with CSF and imaging markers in former American football players.
(2025 Jan 20)
Clin Neuropsychol
Ly MT, Altaras C, Tripodis Y, Adler CH, Balcer LJ, Bernick C, Zetterberg H, Blennow K, Peskind ER, Banks SJ, Barr WB, Wethe JV, Lenio S, Bondi MW, Delano-Wood LM, Cantu RC, Coleman MJ, Dodick DW, Mez J, Daneshvar DH, Palmisano JN, Martin B, Lin AP, Koerte IK, Bouix S, Cummings JL, Reiman EM, Shenton ME, Stern RA, Alosco ML

Sex Differences in Basal Cortisol Levels Across Body Fluid Compartments in a Cross-sectional Study of Healthy Adults.
(2024 Nov 26)
J Endocr Soc 9(1): bvae220
Liang KJ, Colasurdo EA, Li G, Shofer JB, Galasko D, Quinn JF, Farlow MR, Peskind ER

Neurocognitive Intraindividual Variability in Veterans with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury History and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
(2024 Oct 28)
Arch Clin Neuropsychol
Rau HK, Sheppard DP, Karr JE, Hendrickson RC, Schindler A, Peskind ER, Pagulayan KF

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