Research Activity
Dr. Stefano Pallanti's work of study, experimentation and research constantly produces scientific articles, papers, reviews, curatorial works and teaching materials.
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Dr. Pallanti's Research Activity.
Having initially conducted research on schizophrenia, mood disorders and anxiety disorders, including work from dissertation theses published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Pallanti’s interest became more focused on obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and impulse control disorders.
He conducted several collaborative clinical studies on treatment-resistant OCD, including investigations of new treatments such as intravenous clomipramine and citalopram. Further collaborative work at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai focused on pathological gambling and the psychobiology of impulse-control disorders.
These collaborative clinical investigations led to novel neurobiological and treatment studies of OCD and pathological gambling, which provided ground-breaking data regarding the effectiveness of treatments for these two disorders and added to the biological understanding of brain function in pathological gambling.
This research included examination of the response to clonidine, sumatriptan and m-CPP and pioneered the use of mood stabilizers. Dr. Pallanti’s research led to a deeper understanding of gambling pathologies and their underlying, neurobiological mechanisms, as revealed by neuroimaging.
Notably, the rating scale that he developed for pathological gambling ― the Yale Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale adapted for Pathological Gambling (PG-YBOCS) ― has been translated into several languages, including Japanese and Finnish.
As a Director of the Psychosomatic Unit at the University Hospital in Careggi, Florence, Dr. Pallanti organized innovative sub-clinics:
In 2001, Pathological Gambling Disorder and Behavioural Addictions.
In 2001, PANDAS (Pediatric Autoimmune Disorders Associated with Streptococcus) and PANDAS-like disorders.
ADHD ― In addition to the assessment and treatment of patients with ADHD, the Center provides under his supervision, assessment and treatment for people with movement disorders, Tourette Syndrome, Parkinson’s Disease, and traumatic brain injury, when our protocols suspect comorbid ADHD.
He serves as curator of the Italian Adult ADHD rating scale BAARS-IV, a referent in Italy for DIVA 2.0 (Diagnostic Interview for ADHD in Adults) and a co-author of the European consensus statement of diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD.
In 2005 rTMS treatment.
Dr. Pallanti served as the Founder and Strategic Director of the Center for Excellence in Psychiatry at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, 2007 – 2008.
Following his experience at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Dr. Pallanti established the first “Applied Precision Medicine” ADHD program at Stanford University in 2018, which provides comprehensive assessment of subjective and objective symptomatology for planning personalized care. He also served as a TMS consultant.
As a Professor at UC Davis (2013-2014), he worked in the Early Diagnosis and Preventing Psychosis Treatment program, which focuses on treatment of patients in prodromal or early stages of psychosis. He also served in the Consultation - Liaison Psychiatry Service at the UC Davis Medical Hospital, working in the development and practice of telepsychiatry interviewing.
Neuromodulation Treatments
Dr. Pallanti has been applying innovative technologies to treatment-resistant disorders. Thanks to a research grant from the Italian Ministry in 2005, he began investigating Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) for resistant depression, with the goal to simplify the application of TMS for depression, expanding its use to the treatment of bipolar depression. Later, he extended his TMS research to address comorbid treatment-resistant depression and OCD.
At his clinic, all the Neuromodulation Therapies (Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - rTMS, Theta-Burst TMS, SNT Multi-Session TMS, Deep TMS, Photo-Bio-Modulation, non-invasive Vagus Nerve Stimulation, Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation - tDCS, Light Therapy) are in practice ― alone or in combination ― to treat a wide range of pathologies.
More recently, Dr. Pallanti’s clinical work in Italy has focused on interventional psychiatry, utilizing neuromodulation therapies. He has established the first European treatment center integrating CBT with TMS for impulse control disorders, as well as Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS), rTMS, Theta-Burst TMS, Deep TMS, Photo-Bio-Modulation, Vagal Nerve Stimulation, and neuroimmunology applied to psychiatric disorders, including pediatric acute onset disorders, Lyme disease, Neuro Systemic Lupus Erythematosus, Behcet’s Disease, and Long COVID.
Dr. Pallanti published one of the first scientific papers on COVID-19 in 2020 and is a member of the WHO (World Health Organization) funded COVID-19 Clinical Research Coalition’s Ethics Working Group, the Good Clinical Practice Alliance – Europe (GCPA) since 2021.
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Scientific Publications
Dr. Stefano Pallanti is the author of more than 400 scientific articles published in peer-reviewed journals, many editorials, books, abstracts, and other publications.
View and scroll through the complete and updated list of scientific publications produced by Dr. Stefano Pallanti to date.
Firenze Neuroscienze N. 5 (English)
The fifth issue of Firenze Neuroscienze Magazine, offering the latest news on the development of neuroscience and the activities of Dr. Stefano Pallanti's Istituto di Neuroscienze.
