Biological Psychiatry

Professor Trimble was for many years Professor ofBehavioural Neurology and Consultant Physician to the Department ofPsychological Medicine at the National Hospital Queen Square,London. He now holds emeritus status at the above institutions. Hestudied general medicine, obtaining membership of the Royal Collegeof Physicians before going to the National Hospital Queen Squareand then the Maudsley Hospital to advance his training in neurologyand psychiatry. Following an internship in psychiatry at the JohnsHopkins Hospital, Baltimore, he returned to the National Hospitalto pursue a career in neuropsychiatry. He set up a research groupwith main interests in the interface disorders between neurologyand psychiatry, reflected in the developing recognition ofneuropsychiatry and behavioural neurology as independentdisciplines. The research group (Raymond-Way Unit) explored thebehavioural consequences of neurological disorders and theirtreatment, with a major interest in epilepsy and movementdisorders. His current writing and academic interests involveteaching and lecturing on neuroanatomical concepts relevant tounderstanding behaviour and its variations, in particular with aninterest in neuroaesthetics and neurotheology, namely the cerebralbasis of artistic and religious experiences. Dr. George received his medical degree from the MedicalUniversity of South Carolina in Charleston in 1985, where hecontinued with dual residencies in neurology and psychiatry. He isboard certified in both areas. He worked for one year (1990-91) asa Visiting Research Fellow in the Raymond Way NeuropsychiatryResearch Group at the Institute of Neurology, London. He andProfessor Trimble used pharmacology and imaging to study theoverlaps between Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Gilles de laTourette Syndrome. During this year he also worked on newfunctional imaging techniques (SPECT and PET) at the Institute ofNuclear Medicine, University College of London and Middlesex Schoolof Medicine, London. He wrote one of the first textbooks in the newarea of brain activation and imaging. Dr George then moved toWashington, DC, working with Dr. Robert Post in the BiologicalPsychiatry Branch of the Intramural National Institute of MentalHealth. He was one of the first to use functional imaging(particularly oxygen PET) to assess brain changes associated withnormal emotions, as well as using imaging to understand brainchanges which occur in depression and mania. This imaging workdirectly led to his pioneering use of transcranial magneticstimulation (TMS) as a probe of neuronal circuits regulating mood,and to clinical trials using TMS as an antidepressant. In 2008prefrontal TMS was FDA approved as an antidepressant treatment. In1995 he moved back to Charleston and built the functionalneuroimaging division and brain stimulation laboratories. Thisimaging group has grown into the MUSC Center for Advanced ImagingResearch, which is now part of the SC Brain Imaging Center ofExcellence. He continues to use imaging and non-invasivestimulation, either separately or more recently in combination, tounderstand the brain regions involved in emotion regulation inhealth and disease. In 1998, he pioneered another new treatment forresistant depression, vagus nerve stimulation, that was recentlyFDA approved. He and his group have used MRI imaging to understandbrain stimulation brain effects. He is on several editorial reviewboards, and has published over 200 scientific articles, and haswritten or edited 5 books. He is the editor-in-chief of a newjournal, Brain Stimulation. He has received several international awards, including the WorldFederation of Societies of Biological Psychiatry LifetimeAchievement Award (2007), the NARSAD Falcone Award (2008) and hewas honored as one of 14 'Pioneers of Medical Progress' saluted inthe August 2009 edition of US News & World Report.