Professor, Psychiatry & Human Behavior
School of Medicine

Clinical Research Director, Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND)

Lead, Clinical Core, UCI Alzheimer's Disease Research Center

Alzheimer's disease, cognitive aging, neuropsychiatric symptoms, treatment studies, geriatric psychiatry

Dr. Sultzer completed his psychiatry residency and neurobehavior fellowship at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital.

He is Principal Investigator for many ongoing research projects, with interests in cognitive aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and other neuropsychiatric syndromes in older adults. He is recognized for his research work to better understand the phenomenology, pathophysiology, and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, with particular focus on the neuropsychiatric symptoms that occur in Alzheimer’s disease or that promote risk for this disorder. He has used MR and PET neuroimaging to explore mechanisms involved in the expression of clinical symptoms, to assess interactions with cerebrovascular factors, and to identify prevention and treatment targets in these disorders. Molecular neuroimaging studies have also measured cholinergic receptor binding in vivo in healthy aging, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease. He has led many treatment studies for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive aging. He has also completed clinical studies to develop optimal treatments for psychosis, mood symptoms, and behavioral disturbances in neurocognitive disorders, and is one of the few researchers to have examined the differential response of specific clinical symptoms to pharmacologic interventions.

After many years on the faculty at UCLA, Dr. Sultzer joined UC Irvine in 2019. He currently directs the clinical research program at the UCI Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders, and the Clinical Core of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Dr. Sultzer has been widely published in various medical journals, including those with high-impact. He has contributed prominently to University-based training programs. He has received several awards for his research work and is recognized nationally for his academic activities related to geriatric psychiatry and Alzheimer’s disease. He is a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association.

Sultzer DL, Lim AC, Gordon HL, Yarns BC, Melrose RJ.
Cholinergic receptor binding in unimpaired older adults, mild cognitive impairment, and Alzheimer’s disease dementia.
Alzheimers Res Ther 2022; 14:25. PMID: 35130968

Lewis CK, Bernstein OM, Grill JD, Gillen DL, Sultzer DL.
Anxiety and depressive symptoms and cortical amyloid-ß burden in cognitively unimpaired older adults. J Prev Alzheimers Dis 2022; published online Jan 18, 2022

Mortby ME, Adler L, Aguera-Ortiz L, Bateman DR, Brodaty H, Cantillon M, Geda Y, Ismail Z, Lanctot KL, Marshall GA, Padala PR, Politis A, Rosenberg P, Siarkos K, Sultzer DL, Theleritis C.
Apathy as a treatment target in Alzheimer’s disease: Implications for clinical trials.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2022; 30:119-147. PMID: 34315645

Sible IJ, Jang JY, Sultzer DL, Nation DA, for the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
Visit-to-visit blood pressure variability and subthreshold depressive symptoms in older adults.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2022; 30:1110-1119. PMID: 35487831

Tariot PN, Ballard C, Devanand DP, Cummings JL, Sultzer DL.
Pimavanserin and dementia-related psychosis.
Lancet Neurol 2022; 21:114-115. PMID: 35065031

Tariot PN, Cummings JL, Soto-Martin ME, Ballard C, Erten-Lyons D, Sultzer DL, Devanand DP, Weintraub D, McEvoy B, Youakim JM, Stankovic S, Foff EP.
Trial of pimavanserin in dementia-related psychosis.
New Engl J Med 2021; 385:309-319. PMID: 34289275

Yarns BC, Lumley MA, Cassidy JT, Steers WN, Osato S, Schubiner H, Sultzer DL.
Emotional awareness and expression therapy (EAET) achieves greater pain reduction than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in older adults with chronic musculoskeletal pain: a preliminary randomized comparison trial.
Pain Medicine 2020; 21:2811-2822. PMID: 32451528

Grill JD, Reman R, Ernstrom K, Sultzer DL, Burns JM, Donohue MC, Johnson KA, Aisen PS, Sperling RA, Karlawish J, for the A4 Study Team.
Short-term psychological outcomes of disclosing amyloid imaging results to research participants who do not have cognitive impairment
JAMA Neurol 2020; online, doi:10:1001/jamaneurol.2020.2734. PMID: 32777010

Melrose RJ, Zahniser E, Wilkins SS, Veliz J, Hasratian AS, Sultzer DL, Jimenez AM.
Prefrontal working memory activity predicts episodic memory performance: a neuroimaging study.
Behav Brain Res 2020; 379:112307. PMID: 31678217

Weissberger GH, Yarns BC, Narvaez T, Bussel N, Sultzer DL.
Sertraline for the treatment of depression in vascular cognitive impairment.
Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2018; 26: 908-909

Ismail Z, Smith EE, Geda Y, Sultzer D, Brodaty H, Smith G, Aguera-Ortiz L, Sweet R, Miller D, Lyketsos C.
Neuropsychiatric symptoms as early manifestations of emergent dementia: provisional diagnostic criteria for mild behavioral impairment.
Alzheimers Dement 2016; 12:195-202. PMID: 26096665

Sultzer DL. Mild behavioral impairment: a new domain of late-life psychiatric symptoms. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2019; 27:835-837

Melrose RJ, Jimenez A, Riskin-Jones H, Weissberger G, Veliz J, Hasratian AS, Wilkins S, Sultzer D. Alterations to task positive and task negative networks during executive functioning in mild cognitive impairment. Neuroimage Clin 2018; 19:970-981. PMID: 30003034

Sultzer DL. Cognitive ageing and Alzheimer’s disease: the cholinergic system redux. Brain 2018; 141:626-628

Knopman DS, Haeberlein SB, Carrillo MC, Hendrix JA, Kerchner G, Margolin R, Maruff P, Miller DS, Tong G, Tome MB, Murray ME, Nelson PT, Sano M, Mattsson N, Sultzer DL, Montine TJ, Jack CR, Kolb H, Petersen RC, Vemuri P, Canniere MZ, Schneider JA, Resnick SM, Ramano G, van Harten AC, Wolk DA, Bain LJ, Siemers E. The NIA-AA Research Framework for Alzheimer’s Disease: perspectives from the Research Roundtable. Alzheimers Dement 2018; 14:563-575. PMID: 29653607

Sultzer DL. Why apathy in Alzheimer’s matters. Am J Psychiatry 2018; 175:99-100

Weissberger GH, Melrose RJ, Narvaez TA, Harwood D, Mandelkern MA, Sultzer DL. FDG-PET cortical metabolic activity associated with distinct agitation behaviors in Alzheimer’s disease. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2017; 25:569-579. PMID: 28215899

Sultzer DL, Melrose RJ, Riskin-Jones H, Narvaez TA, Veliz J, Ando TK, Juarez KO, Harwood DG, Brody AL, Mandelkern MA. Cholinergic receptor binding in Alzheimer’s disease and healthy aging: assessment in vivo with PET imaging. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2017; 25:342-353. PMID: 28162919

Ismail Z, Aguera-Ortiz L, Brodaty H, Cieslak A, Cummings J, Fischer C, Gauthier S, Geda Y, Herrmann N, Kanji J, Lanctot K, Miller D, Mortby M, Onyike C, Rosenberg P, Smith EE, Smith G, Sultzer D, Lyketsos C. The Mild Behavioral Impairment Checklist (MCI-C): a rating scale for neuropsychiatric symptoms in pre-dementia populations. J Alzheimers Dis 2017; 56:929-938

Sultzer DL, Leskin LP, Melrose RJ, Harwood DG, Narvaez TA, Ando TK, Mandelkern MA. Neurobiology of delusions, memory, and insight in Alzheimer’s disease. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 2014; 22:1346-1355. PMID: 24021220

Maher AR, Maglione M, Bagley S, Suttorp M, Hu J-H, Ewing B, Wang Z, Timmer M, Sultzer D, Shekelle P. The efficacy and comparative effectiveness of atypical antipsychotic drugs for off-label uses in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA 2011; 306(12) Sept 28:1359-1369

Additional publications can be viewed at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/david.sultzer.4/bibliography/public/

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6751

Last updated
03/10/2023