Gunvant Thaker
 

Gunvant Thaker M.D.
Academic Title: Professor
Primary Appointment: Psychiatry
gthaker@mprc.umaryland.edu
Location: 701 W. Pratt St., 388 (MPRC)
Phone: (410) 402-6820

Personal History

M.D., 1979 Baroda Medical College, Baroda, India.

Research Interests

I direct the Schizophrenia Related Disorders (SRD) Program of the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center. The SRD Program runs a First Episode Psychosis Clinic that evaluates and provides comprehensive treatment to young individuals who experience psychotic symptoms for the first time. My scientific interest is in identifying genes related to schizophrenia, a complex disorder that likely encompasses several genetic factors with small effects. My work is focused on identifying heritable, physiological intermediate phenotypes that likely mark the effects of different genes associated with liability for schizophrenia and other associated comorbid conditions such as nicotine addiction.

Publications

Thaker GK, Tamminga CA, Wagman AMA: Sleep Polygraphy in Schizophrenia: Methodological issues. Biological Psychiatry, 28:240-246, 1990.
 
Thaker GK, Ellsberry R, Moran M, Lahti AR, Tamminga CA: Tobacco smoking increases square wave jerks during pursuit eye movements. Biological Psychiatry, 29:82-88,1991.
 
Moran MJ, Thaker GK, Smith D, Cassady SL, Layne-Gedge J: Shifts in covert visual attention in schizophrenic patients and normal controls. Biological Psychiatry, 32:617-620, 1992.
 
Tamminga CA, Thaker GK, Buchanan RW, Kirkpatrick B, Alphs LD, Chase TN, Carpenter WT Limbic system abnormalities identified in schizophrenia using positron emission tomography with fluorodeoxyglucose and neocortical alterations with deficit syndrome. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49:522-530, 1992.
 
Thaker GK, Moran MJ, Adami HA, Cassady SL: Psychosis proneness scales in schizophrenia spectrum personality disorders: Familial and non-familial samples. Psychiatry Research, 46:47-57, 1993.
 
Thaker GK, Adami HA, Moran MJ, Lahti AR, Cassady SL: Psychiatric illnesses in families of subjects with schizophrenia-spectrum personality disorders: High morbidity risks for unspecified functional psychoses and schizophrenia. American Journal of Psychiatry, 150:66-71, 1993.
 
Moran MJ, Thaker GK, LaPorte DJ, Cassady SL, Ross DE: Covert Visual Attention in Schizophrenia Spectrum Personality Disordered Subjects: Visuospatial Cuing and Alerting Effects. Journal of Psychiatry Research, 4: 261-275, 1996.
 
Holcomb HH, Cascella NG, Thaker GK, Medoff DR, Gastineau EA, Loats HL, Dannals RF, Tamminga CA: Functional sites of neuroleptic drug action in human brain: PET/FDG Studies With and Without Haloperidol. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 153:41-49, 1996.
 
Thaker GK, Cassady S, Adami HA, Moran MM, Ross DE. Eye movements in spectrum personality disorders: comparison of a community sample with relatives of schizophrenic patients. The American Journal of Psychiatry, 153:362-368, 1996.
 
Cassady SL, Thaker GK, Summerfelt A, Tamminga CA: The Maryland Psychiatric Research center scale and the characterization of involuntary movements. Psychiatry Research. 70:21-37, 1997.
 
Cassady SL, Adami HM, Moran M, Kunkel R, Thaker GK: Spontaneous dyskinesia in schizophrenia spectrum personality disorder. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 155:70-75, 1998.
 
Thaker GK, Ross DE, Cassady SL, Adami HM, LaPorte D, Medoff DR, Lahti A. Smooth Pursuit Eye Movements to Extraretinal Motion Signals: Deficits in Relatives of Patients with Schizophrenia. Archives of General Psychiatry. 55:830-836, 1998.
 
Ross DE, Buchanan RW, Medoff D, Lahti AC, Thaker GK: Association between eye tracking disorder in schizophrenia and poor sensory integration. The American Journal of Psychiatry. 155:1352-1357, 1998.
 
Kunkel R, Adami H, Zetlmeisl M, Ross DE, Thaker GK: Recruitment of Non-patient Volunteers with Schizophrenia Spectrum Personality Symptoms. Schizophrenia Research, 34:181-186, 1998.
 
Celso A, Adami H, Sherr JD, Thaker G, Carpenter WT. Awareness of Abnormal Involuntary Movements: Relationship to Insight into Mental Illness and Longitudinal Stability. The American Journal of Psychiatry.
Hong LE, Mitchell BD, Avila MT, Adami H, McMahon RP, Thaker, GK: Familial Aggregation of Eye Tracking Endophenotypes in Schizophrenia Families. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63:259-264, 2006.

Thaker GK: Endophenotypic studies in schizophrenia: promise and challenges. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 33:1-2, 2007.

Hong LE, Summerfelt A, Adami HM, Wonodi I, Buchanan RW, Thaker GK: Independent domains of inhibitory gating in schizophrenia and the effect of stimulus interval. American Journal Psychiatry, 164:61-65, 2007.

Wonodi I, Reeves R, Carmichael D, Verovsky I, Avila MT, Elliott A, Hong LE, Adami HM, Thaker GK. Tardive Dyskinesia in Children treated with Atypical Antipsychotic Medications. Movement Disorders, 22:1777-82, 2007.

Hong LE, Wonodi IO, Stine C, Mitchell BD, Thaker GK. Evidence of Missense Mutations on the Neuregulin 1 Gene Affecting Function of Prepulse Inhibition. Biological Psychiatry, 63:458-464, 2008

Robles O, Blaxton T, Adami HM, Arango C, Thaker GK, and Gold J. Nonverbal delayed recognition as a cognitive endophenotype for schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 63: 498-504,2008.

Hong LE, Turano KA, O’Neill H, Hao L, Wonodi I, Elliott A, Thaker GK: Refining the Predictive Pursuit Endophenotype in Schizophrenia. Biological Psychiatry, 63: 458-464, 2008.

Thaker GK: Schizophrenia Endophenotypes as Treatment Targets. Expert Opinion on Therapeutic Targets, 11:1189-1206, 2007.

Hong LE, Wonodi I, Lewis J, and Thaker GK. Nicotine Effect on Prepulse Inhibition and Prepulse Facilitation in Schizophrenia Patients. Neuropsychopharmacology. 33:2167-2174, 2008.

Javitt DC, Spencer KM, Thaker GK, Winterer G, Hajós M: Neurophysiological Biomarkers for Drug Development in Schizophrenia. Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery, 7;68-83,2008

Hong LE, Summerfelt A, Braxton MD, McMahon RP, Wonodi W, Buchanan RW, and Thaker GK: Sensory Gating Endophenotype Based on Its Neural Oscillatory Pattern and Heritability Estimate. Archives of General Psychiatry,65:1008-1016, 2008.

Wonodi I, Hong LE, Stine OC, Mitchell BD, Elliott A, Roberts RC, Conley RR, McMahon RP, Thaker GK. Dopamine transporter polymorphism modulates oculomotor function and DAT1 mRNA expression in schizophrenia. American Journal of Medical Genetics B Neuropsychiatric Genetics. 2008 Jun 13.

Ivleva E, Thaker G, Tamminga CA. Comparing genes and phenomenology in the major psychoses: schizophrenia and bipolar 1 disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin. 34:734-42, 2008.

Thaker G. Psychosis endophenotypes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 34:720-721, 2008

Thaker GK. Neurophysiological endophenotypes across bipolar and schizophrenia psychosis. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 34:760-73, 2008.

Hong LE, Turano KA, O’Neil H, Lei H, Wonodi I, McMahon RP, Thaker GK. Is motion perception deficit in schizophrenia a consequence of eyetracking abnormality? Biol Psychiatry. 2008 Dec 1.

Hong LE, Gu, H, Yang YH, Ross TJ, Salmeron BJ, Buchholz B, Thaker GK, Stein EA. Association of Nicotine addiction and Nicotine’s actions with separate cingulate cortex functional circuits. Archives of General Psychiatry, in press.



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