Health Psychology

Faculty

Education

• Ph.D.: Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014

Research Interests

Dr. Timothy Donahue's research and area of interest is behavioral pharmacology, specifically the discriminative stimulus properties of antipsychotic medications. Donahue has been investigating a medication called amisulpride, an atypical antipsychotic, produced by the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi-Aventis and used in the treatment of schizophrenia and depression. It is not approved for use in the USA but is widely used throughout Europe and Australia. Amisulpride has a distinctive receptor binding profile. Donahue's research has demonstrated that the amisulpride stimulus is readily acquired in C57BL/6 mice; and that the drug possesses a unique and robust discriminative stimulus that is dose-dependent, time-dependent and stereoselective and is not shared with other antipsychotic or antidepressant drugs. Donahue is a Faculty Adviser and representative in Psi Chi Club.

Select Publications

• Donahue, T. J., Hillhouse, T. M., Webster, K. A., Young, R., De Oliveira, E. O., & Porter, J. H. (2017). Discriminative stimulus properties of the atypical antipsychotic amisulpride: comparison to its isomers and to other benzamide derivatives, antipsychotic, antidepressant, and antianxiety drugs in C57BL/6 mice. Psychopharmacology, 234, 3507-3520.
• Donahue, T. J., Hillhouse, T. M., Webster, K. A., Young, R., De Oliveira, E. O., & Porter, J. H. (2014). (S)-amisulpride as a discriminative stimulus in C57BL/6 mice and its comparison to the stimulus effects of typical and atypical antipsychotics. European Journal of Pharmacology, 734, 15-22.

Courses

• Biological Psychology, graduate level
• Freud: Myths and Legacy, undergraduate level
• Introduction to Psychology, undergraduate level
• Physiological Psychology, undergraduate level
• Psychology and Law, undergraduate level

Affliations

• Psi Chi

Awards

• Faculty Council Research Award by the College of Humanities and Sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015
• Graduate Student Research Award, Society for the Stimulus Properties of Drugs, 2011