Michael P. Caligiuri, Ph.D.
Professor
SDVAMC
3350 La Jolla Village Drive
San Diego, CA 92161-116A
Phone #: 858-642-1266
FAX #: 858-552-7404
E-mail: mcaligiuri@ucsd.edu

Biography:
Dr. Caligiuri attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he received a Ph.D. in neuroscience with an emphasis in motor control. Upon completion of this work in 1986, he accepted a post-doc position in San Diego where he started a movement disorders laboratory for studying levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Caligiuri began working with faculty in the Department of Psychiatry in 1987 to test novel instruments for quantifying tardive dyskinesia and drug-induced parkinsonism. He joined the division of Geriatric Psychiatry in 1988 where his movement disorders laboratory is now located.

Research Focus:
The notion that the motor system can inform us about affective and psychotic states has been an ongoing theme of his research over the last 15 years. Beginning with the early studies which yielded novel technologies up to the most recent treatment outcome studies, his program of research has focused applying a few quantifiable measurement domains to help understand the complexity and heterogeneity of mental illness. This theme has resulted in a steady stream of federally and private foundation funded studies of dementia, schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder. Recently, it occurred to him that we know next to nothing about how the abnormal brain organizes motor behavior or whether pathological processes that cause psychosis and depression are similar to those that cause motor problems. We have long believed that these processes share a similar neurobiology, but there was little empirical evidence to support this claim. So, he began to shift his research program to understanding the neurobiology of movement disorders in psychosis by applying functional neuroimaging techniques, particularly fMRI. The goal is to apply neuroimaging techniques to understand the neural substrate of mood regulation and to detect significant differences in neural circuit function that predict different stages of bipolar disorder. These fMRI studies in this area are probably the first to make use of a well-characterized system (motor) to learn about the brain activity that accompanies changes in affective state.

Clinical Focus:
Dr. Caligiuri’s clinical focus is on movement disorders with particular emphasis of differentiating idiopathic or degenerative disorders from medication-induced disorders. He is involved in the residency training program as a lecturer on movement disorders and consultant to inpatient medical staff. A significant portion of his clinical activity is in the area of geriatric psychiatry, where he runs a movement disorders assessment clinic for monitoring tardive dyskinesia.

Selected Publications:

• Caligiuri MP, Lohr JB, (1997) Instrumental motor predictors of neuroleptic-induced parkinsonism in newly medicated schizophrenia patients. J. Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 9: 562-567
• Caligiuri MP, Lohr JB, Ruck, RK (1998) Scaling of movement velocity: a measure of neuromotor retardation in individuals with psychopathology Psychophysiology 35: 431-437
• Lohr JB, Caligiuri MP, Manley MS, Browning JA (2000) Neuroleptic-induced striatal damage in rats: a study of antioxidant treatment using accelerometric and immunocytochemical methods. Psychopharmacology 148: 171-179
• Caligiuri MP, Ellwanger J. (2000) Motor and cognitive aspects of motor retardation in depression. J Affective Disorders, 57: 83-93
• Caligiuri MP, Gentili V, Eberson S, Kelsoe J, Rapaport M, Gillin JC A quantitative neuromotor predictor of treatment non-response in depression. J Affective Disorders (in press)