Elliot Nelson

Additional Titles & Roles

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• Psychiatry Consult Attending
• Psychiatry Clinic Attending

Education & Training

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• Residency: Washington University, St. Louis, MO, 1990
• M.D.: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1986
• B.A.: Johns Hopkins University, 1982

Major Awards

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• American Psychiatric Association – Distinguished Fellow, 2003

Areas of Clinical Interest

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Dr. Nelson has experience, and interest in treating OCD, anxiety and affective disorders.

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Research Interests

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I have expertise in genetic studies of opioid and other drug dependence. I also have a strong interest in the contribution of trauma exposure to liability for psychopathology. I have conducted large investigations in these areas.

Recent Publications

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• Runx1 transcription factor modulates opioid analgesia and withdrawal in humans and rodents

  Leduc-Pessah, H., McAllister, B. B., Sinha, S., Stokes-Heck, S., Nishizawa, D., Fan, C. Y., St-Pierre, M. K., Bradaia, A., Defaye, M., Burma, N. E., Damblon, J., Muñoz-Pino, E., Visser, F., Dorion, M. F., Healy, L. M., Tang, Y. M., Canet-Pons, J., van den Hoogen, N. J., Zhang, Z. & Antunes, F. T. T. & 20 others, Piscopo, V. E. C., Medina, M., Fukuda, K. I., Ichinohe, T., Nagashima, M., Hayashida, M., Johnson, E., Agrawal, A., Degenhardt, L., Martin, N. G., Zamponi, G. W., Nelson, E. C., Altier, C., Tremblay, M. E., Bousman, C., Stifani, S., De Koninck, Y., Ikeda, K., Biernaskie, J. & Trang, T., Mar 4 2026, In: Neuron. 114, 5, p. 903-921.e13

• Shared genetic architecture of posttraumatic stress disorder with cardiovascular imaging, risk, and diagnoses

  Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Working Group of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium, Dec 2025, In: Nature communications. 16, 1, 5631.

• Polygenic and developmental profiles of autism differ by age at diagnosis

  APEX Consortium, iPSYCH Autism Consortium & PGC-PTSD Consortium, Oct 30 2025, In: Nature. 646, 8087, p. 1146-1155 10 p.

• Multi-ancestral genome-wide association study of clinically defined nicotine dependence reveals strong genetic correlations with other substance use disorders and health-related traits

  Johnson, E. C., Lai, D., Balbona, J. V., Miller, A. P., Hatoum, A. S., Deak, J. D., Jennings, M., Baranger, D. A. A., Galimberti, M., Sanichwankul, K., Thorgeirsson, T., Colbert, S. M. C., Adhikari, K., Docherty, A. R., Degenhardt, L., Edwards, T., Fox, L., Giannelis, A., Jeffries, P. W. & Korhonen, T. & 47 others, Morrison, C. L., Nunez, Y. Z., Palviainen, T., Su, M. H., Romero Villela, P. N., Wetherill, L., Willoughby, E. A., Zellers, S. M., Bierut, L. J., Buchwald, J., Copeland, W. E., Corley, R. P., Friedman, N. P., Foroud, T. M., Gillespie, N. A., Gizer, I. R., Heath, A. C., Hickie, I. B., Kaprio, J., Keller, M. C., Lee, J. J., Lind, P., Madden, P. A., Maes, H. H. M., Martin, N. G., McGue, M., Medland, S. E., Nelson, E. C., Pearson, J., Porjesz, B., Stallings, M. C., Vrieze, S., Wilhelmson, K. C., Kranzler, H. R., Walters, R. K., Polimanti, R., Malison, R., Zhou, H., Stefansson, K., Sanchez-Roige, S., Potenza, M., Mutirangura, A., Shotelersuk, V., Kalayasiri, R., Edenberg, H. J., Gelernter, J. & Agrawal, A., Aug 20 2025, In: Psychological medicine. 55, e234.

• Leveraging Genomic Data to Examine the Causal Impact of Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis, and Opioid Use on Biological and Cognitive Ageing

  Balbona, J., Jeffries, P., Gorelik, A., Nelson, E., Bogdan, R., Agrawal, A. & Johnson, E., Jul 2025, In: Addiction Biology. 30, 7, e70066.

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Funded Research Projects

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