Brian A. Fallon MD, MPH

Brian A. Fallon, MD, MPH, is the director of the Center for Neuroinflammatory Disorders and Biobehavioral Medicine and director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University. A graduate of Harvard College, he obtained his M.D. degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, as well as a master's degree in public health epidemiology from Columbia University. He did his medical internship at Columbia University Medical Center and research training and an NIH fellowship in biological psychiatry at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute.

In addition to his work on illness anxiety, hypochondriasis, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and somatoform disorders, Dr. Fallon is recognized internationally for his research on neurologic and neuropsychiatric Lyme disease. He has served on expert panels for the National Institutes of Health in different areas, including OCD and neurologic and chronic Lyme Disease, and has received over $10 million in both private and governmental grants to continue his research.

A primary focus is on the pathophysiologic mechanisms and treatment underlying persistent cognitive impairment, fatigue, and pain among patients with histories of Lyme or other Tick-borne diseases. This interest leads to collaborative studies involving proteomics, genomics, neuroimaging, cognitive remediation, treatment trials, and the search for more sensitive and specific diagnostic biomarkers. This expertise has also led to new projects in psychiatry, such as a NARSAD funded study of the role of ceftriaxone (an IV antibiotic) as a treatment for patients with refractory psychoses, examining improvement clinically and in glutamatergic change using MR Spectroscopy.

Dr. Fallon is also a leader in the area of somatoform disorders, particularly the pharmacotherapy of hypochondriasis, and is currently conducting both treatment and functional neuroimaging studies in these areas and serves as an advisor to the Anxiety and Obsessional Disorders DSM-V workgroup.