Robert Andrew  Chambers Author of Evaluating Organization Development
FEATURED AUTHOR

Robert Andrew Chambers

Associate Professor of Psychiatry
IU School of Medicine

R. Andrew Chambers, MD, is a neuroscientist, educator, and clinician in the field of addiction psychiatry. Andy’s research has investigated the brain anatomy and neural mechanisms that fundamentally link the pathologies of addiction and mental illness. This research translates into the design of a new behavioral health system called the 2 x 4 Model which aims to achieve full integration of addiction and mental health treatment services, professional training, and clinical research.

Biography

R. Andrew Chambers is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of Addiction Psychiatry Training at Indiana University School of Medicine, in Indianapolis.  He is a graduate of Centre College (1991:B.S., chemical physics/mathematics), Duke University School of Medicine (1996: M.D.), and the Yale University Psychiatry Residency (2000) and Fellowship Programs in Basic Neuroscience (2002).  His career development and research have been supported by grants from the National Alliance for Research on Schizophrenia and Depression, the Veterans Administration, the American Psychiatric Association, and the National Institutes on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA).  He completed his Addiction Psychiatry fellowship at IU in 2012, earning certifications in both Addiction Medicine (ABAM) and Addiction Psychiatry (ABPN).  He practices Addiction Psychiatry in the Adult Dual Diagnosis Clinic at Midtown Mental Health Center, Indianapolis, and has served as an expert consultant for the Attorney General of Indiana and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.  As Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Program at IU, Andy leads physician training in psychiatric addictionology at the nation’s largest medical school.  As Director of the Laboratory for Translational Neuroscience of Dual Diagnosis and Development at IU, Andy’s research has pioneered the use of rodent models of dual diagnosis, and new theory design in exploring the neurodevelopmental mechanisms that drive addiction disease in adolescence and mental illness.   His work, spanning animal modeling, neurocomputational, clinical, and health systems research has contributed to building a neuroscientific foundation, and clinical translation upon which fully integrated addiction and mental health services and professional training of the future may be built.

Education

    BS, Centre College, Danville, KY, 1991
    MD, Duke University, Durhan, NC, 1996
    Psychiatry, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2000
    Neuroscience, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2002
    Addiction Psychiatry, IU, Indianapolis, IN, 2012

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

    Addiction Neuroscience, Professional Training and Clinical Practice
    General Psychiatry
    Psychopharmacology
    Dual Diagnosis Disorders
    Adolescent Neurodevelopment
    Computational Neuroscience Applied to Psychiatric Disorders

Personal Interests

    Raising Children/being husband
    Triathloning
    Computer war gaming simulations

Websites

Books

Featured Title
 Featured Title - The 2 x 4 Model - 1st Edition book cover

Articles

Psychodynamic Psychiatry

On Mourning and Recovery: Integrating Stages of Grief and Change Toward a Neuros


Published: Dec 15, 2017 by Psychodynamic Psychiatry
Authors: R. Andrew Chambers, M.D.1; Sue C. Wallingford, M.A., L.P.C., A.T.R. Read More: https://guilfordjournals.com/doi/abs/10

The article explores addiction as a form of pathological attachment. Prochaska's Stages of Change and Kubler-Ross's stages of Grief may be complimentary and overlapping manifestations of a more general neural network adaptation that has to happen in the course of successful recovery from addiction.

Addiction Biology

Nicotine is more addictive, not more cognitively therapeutic in a neurodevelopme


Published: Aug 06, 2013 by Addiction Biology
Authors: Sarah A. Berg, Alena M. Sentir, Benjamin S. Cooley, Eric A. Engleman, R. Andrew Chambers

This is the first animal modeling experiment demonstrating nicotine addiction vulnerability in a neurodevelopmental animal model of mental illness.

Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews

A Scale-Free Systems Theory of Motivation and Addiction


Published: May 03, 2007 by Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
Authors: R. Andrew Chambers, M.D.,corresponding author Warren K. Bickel, Ph.D., and Marc N. Potenza, M.D., Ph.D.

Motivated behavior in Addiction disease can be understood computationally as an informatic map, generated by striatal neural networks, of motivational links connecting behavioral nodes. Dopamine mediated plasticity sculpts these maps for organizational efficiency and behavioral adaption in a way that can be pathologically influenced by mental illness or adolescent neurodevelopment in the course of addictive disease.

American Journal of Psychiatry

Developmental Neurocircuitry of Motivation in Adolescence: A Critical Period of


Published: Jun 01, 2003 by American Journal of Psychiatry
Authors: R. Andrew Chambers, M.D., Jane R. Taylor, Ph.D., and Marc N. Potenza, M.D., Ph.D.

As informed by the neurocircuit basis for addiction vulnerability in mental illness (Chambers et al. Biol Psy, 2001) the neurodevelopmental changes of adolescence can also be appreciated as a vulnerability state that accelerates addiction pathogenesis.

Biological Psychiatry

A Neurobiological Basis for Substance Abuse Comorbidity in Schizophrenia


Published: Jul 15, 2001 by Biological Psychiatry
Authors: R. Andrew Chambers, John H. Krystal, and David W. Self

First description of a neuroscientific basis of addiction acceleration in mental illness presented as an alternative to the self-medication dogma.

Photos

Videos

Dr. Chambers Discusses Neuroscience of Nicotine Addiction in Mental Illness

Published: Dec 28, 2017

Schizophrenia and other major mental illnesses produce an involuntary, brain-based vulnerability to nicotine, cocaine, alcohol and opioid addictions. This neuroscience questions the wide gap between mental health and addiction training, services and research, and translates to a new approach to integrated behavioral health care called the '2 x 4 Model'.