Eduardo David Leonardo, MD, PHD

Psychiatry
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Overview

Dr. Leonardo graduated from Yale University and received his M.D. and Ph.D. from the University of California at San Francisco.

He completed residency training at NYSPI/Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons. He completed a Research Fellowship in Anxiety, Mood and related disorders in 2006 and has been on the faculty since then. He is currently an Associate Residency training director and director of Neuroscience Education and Research training for the Department of Psychiatry residency program at Columbia.

Areas of Expertise / Conditions Treated

  • Adjustment Disorder
  • Adult Psychiatry
  • Adult Psychopharmacology
  • Anxiety and Depression
  • Anxiety Disorders
  • Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)
  • Bipolar Disorder
  • Depression
  • Generalized Anxiety Disorder
  • General Psychiatry
  • Insomnia
  • Mental Health
  • Mood Disorders
  • Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
  • Panic Disorder
  • Psychopharmacology
  • Psychopharmacology of Anxiety and Depression
  • Psychosis
  • Psychotherapy
  • Social Anxiety Disorder

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at CUMC

Administrative Titles

  • Associate Director, Residency Training Department of Psychiatry

Hospital Affiliations

  • NewYork-Presbyterian / Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Languages

  • Spanish

Gender

  • Male

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Location(s)

119 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
Disabled Accessible
Public Transit Accessible

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • 1999 University of California San Francisco School of Medicine
  • Internship: 2001 New York State Psychiatric Institute
  • Residency: 2003 NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center

Board Certifications

  • Psychiatry

Research

Our primary interest is in understanding how temporal factors, genetic risk, and environmental milieu interact to impact on the expression of mental illness.  As the brain develops, distinct neural circuits develop within narrowly defined time periods. These precisely defined time windows provide the opportunity for short-lived gene X environment interactions that ultimately determine the functioning of mature circuitry and the behaviors that they mediate. In a longstanding collaboration with Alex Dranovsky, we are examining the effects of stressful and enriching experiences on mature and immature brain circuitry in the mouse, with the aim of understanding how such effects produce alterations in behavior.

In another area of investigation, we use novel, regulatable, serotonin-1A receptor mutant mice to disrupt normal serotonergic signaling in early development.  Using this system, we can independently manipulate either specific cortical 5-HT1A medicated signaling by selectively removing cortical receptors, or globally disrupt serotonergic signaling by removing 5-HT1A receptors in the raphe, which provide negative feedback for serotonergic neurons.  Using this model system, we have already identified distinct effects of cortical receptors on depression related behavior and raphe receptors on anxiety related behavior.  We are currently investigating the time course during which the distinct circuits mediating these behaviors are vulnerable to disruption.

Research Interests

  • Models of Psychiatric Disorders
  • Mood Disorder
  • Neurobiology of Disease
  • Neurogenetics
  • Synapses and Circuits

Selected Publications

  • Garcia-Garcia, A.L., Meng, Q., Canetta, S., Gardier, A.M., Guiard, B.P., Kellendonk, C., Dranovsky, A., *Leonardo, E.D. Serotonin signaling through Prefrontal Cortex 5-HT1A receptors during adolescence can determine baseline mood-related behaviors. (2017) Cell Reports. Jan 31;18(5) 1144-1156.
  • Garcia-Garcia, A.L., Meng, Q., Richardson-Jones, J., Dranovsky, A., Leonardo, E.D. (2015) Disruption of 5-HT1A function in adolescence but not early adulthood leads to sustained increases of anxiety. doi:10.1016/j.neuroscience.2015.05.076.
  • Kirshenbaum GS, Lieberman SR, Briner TJ, Leonardo ED, Dranovsky A. (2014) Adolescent but not adult-born neurons are critical for susceptibility to chronic social defeat. Front Behav Neurosci. 8:289.
  • Richardson-Jones JW1, Craige CP, Guiard BP, Stephen A, Metzger KL, Kung HF, Gardier AM, Dranovsky A, David DJ, Beck SG, Hen R, Leonardo ED. (2010) 5-HT1A autoreceptor levels determine vulnerability to stress and response to antidepressants. Neuron. 65:40-52. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2009.12.003.
  • Leonardo, E.D. (2010). 5-HT1A autoreceptors determine vulnerability to stress and response to antidepressants. Neuron 65: 40-52.
  • Leonardo, E. D., and Hen, R. (2007) Anxiety as a Developmental Disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology reviews 2007: 1: 1-7.