Brief Biographical Description |
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| In Germany Mainz In New York In
California 1997-2000 |
Dr. Paulus studied Medicine at the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz from 1979-1985. He completed his medical dissertation in the Department of Pathology on the "Phagocytotic activity of epitheliod and giant cells in an experimentally induced tubulo-interstitial nephritis" with magna cum laude. Dr. Paulus joined the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Mainz from 1985-1986 working on using nonlinear tools to characterize EEG patterns of patients with psychiatric disorders. Dr. Paulus received a postdoctoral fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) in 1986 to study the effects of calcium antagonists on animal models of mania at the University of California San Diego with Dr. Karen Britton. He completed several studies of the interaction between corticotropin releasing factor and Verapamil or Nifedipine. During his fellowship, Dr. Paulus met up with Dr. Arnold Mandell, who was studying the application of nonlinear dynamical systems measures to biological systems. Dr. Paulus worked with Dr. Mandell and Dr. Stephen Gass on developing classification approaches for simple discrete nonlinear systems using measures from ergodic theory of dynamical systems. These approaches were subsequently adapted to examine the complex patterns of locomotor activities in rodents. This lead Dr. Paulus to collaborate extensively with Dr. Mark Geyer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego (UCSD). In 1993, Dr. Paulus left UCSD to resume his medical training. He completed his internship at the Long Island Jewish Medical Center / Zucker Hillside Hospital on Long Island, NY. In 1994, he rejoined the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD as a psychiatric resident. Dr. Paulus completed his residency in psychiatry in 1997. At that time, he joined the Department as an Assistant Professor in Residence. He also became a staff psychiatrist at the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health Care System. During his residency and as junior faculty he worked with Dr. David Braff on the application of nonlinear dynamical systems approach to quantify the complex behavior of schizophrenia patients. He also began to combine simple behavioral paradigms with functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine the neural substrate underlying the behavioral organization in these patients. During the late 90s and early 2000s, Dr. Paulus worked with Dr. Lewis Judd on characterizing the subthreshold depression as an important manifestation of unipolar depression, he also worked with Dr. Judd on quantifying the course of unipolar depression. In 1999, Dr. Paulus began to collaborate with Dr. Marc Schuckit to examine the decision-making characteristics of stimulant dependent individuals and the potential to utilize altered decision-making behavior to predict clinical outcomes. In 2001, Dr. Paulus extended his approach to use simple behavioral tests, nonlinear dynamical measures, and functional magnetic resonance imaging to quantify behaviors of patients with anxiety disorder in a collaboration with Dr. Murray Stein. Moreover, Dr. Paulus began to utilize pharmacological manipulations to examine the neurochemical basis of activation patterns in areas important for anxiety. Dr. Paulus has collaborated with several other investigators including Dr. Robert Bilder (now at UCLA), Dr. Ester Sternberg (NIMH), Dr. Franz Vollenweider (University Hospital, Zuerich Switzerland), Dr. Jitender Sareen and Dr. Jeff Reiss (University of Manitoba, Canada). Currently, Dr. Paulus is interested in developing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) as a tool in psychiatry for (1) making clinically important predictions ,e.g. relapse to drug use or transition from casual use to dependence, (2) developing new medications, (3) examining the degree of dysfunctions in patients with psychiatric disorders. As the associate chief of psychiatry in the San Diego Veterans Affairs Health Care System, he has initiated several programs in order to improve access to care. These programs include telemental-health, advanced notification of patients, and statistical tracking of no-shows to improve clinic efficiency. Dr. Paulus is director of the Mood Clinic at the San Diego VA, a large outpatient service that focuses on treating patients with unipolar and bipolar depressive disorder. His patient case-load has varied between 250-400 patients over the past two years. Dr. Paulus has regularly scheduled clinic hours during which he sees patients for both medication management and treatment plan coordination with a multi-disciplinary treatment team. He is also continuing to determine the efficacy of a standardized treatment class for patients with anger management problems. In collaboration with several clinicians at the San Diego VA, he has developed a standardized treatment manual and are now in the process of training various clinicians in the VA hospital to lead this standardized anger management program. As of 2007, Dr. Paulus is the director of the functional Neuroimaging Core of the Center for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH) at the San Diego Veterans Affairs Medical Center. |
