Robert N. Pechnick, PhD
Associate Director, Psychiatry Research
Robert N. Pechnick, PhD is Associate Director of Psychiatry Research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Cedars-Sinai. Dr. Pechnick is also a professor of psychiatry at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Pechnick's area of research interest involves studying the neuropharmacology of pyschotherapeutic medications and drugs of abuse, with the goal of developing new treatments for mental illness and drug abuse. His research projects have received funding from the National Institutes of Health.
A prolific writer, Dr. Pechnick has written numerous articles for peer-reviewed publications, including Brain Research, Archives of General Psychiatry, European Journal of Pharmacology, Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, Neuropsychopharmacology Proceedings of the National Academy of Science and Psychopharmacology. He has also authored or coauthored book chapters for Substance Abuse: A Comprehensive Textbook, Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders and The American Psychiatric Press Textbook of Substance Abuse. He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, College on Problems of Drug Dependence, the Society for Neuroscience and the West Coast College of Biological Psychiatry.
Dr. Pechnick received his bachelor's degree in psychology from University of California, San Diego and his doctorate in pharmacology from UCLA School of Medicine. He completed National Institute of Mental Health postdoctoral fellowships in the Department of Psychology and in the Laboratory of Neuroendocrinology at UCLA.
