James Edward Swain MD, PhD, FRCPC

Dr. Swain completed doctoral training in preclinical neuroscience and medicine at the University of Toronto where he was the first to report that protein phosphatases regulate serotonin neurotransmission. He then trained in psychiatry and child & adolescent psychiatry at the University of Ottawa and in translational developmental research at the Child Study Center, Yale University where he was among the pioneers to elucidate the human Maternal Behavior Neurocircuits that regulate parenting.

After faculty positions at Yale and the University of Michigan developing research projects on parenting affected by psychopathology and child development affected by the chronic stress of poverty, Dr. Swain now leads translational research at Stony Brook University on the brain-basis of parent-child bonding and development, including effects of depression, anxiety, chronic and traumatic stress, poverty, drug abuse and potential for illness prevention and treatment. He recently published the first reports of maternal brain function that can change with psychotherapy and that are affected among mothers suffering opioid use disorders. He currently runs major NIH/NIDA projects on maternal brain with opioid use disorder and clinical trial of intervention with allied neuroimaging. Dr. Swain has published over 150 articles and book chapters, with hundreds of scientific conferences and educational media presentations.

• Training Program in Childhood Neuropsychiatric Disorders
  NIH T32 MH018268
  Swain (Co-I)
  7/1/05 – 6/30/09
• Childhood Poverty and Brain Development: Roles of Chronic Stress and Parenting.
  NIH/NICHD/NIMHD RC2MD004767 Grand Opportunity “GO” Grant
  Swain (MPI)
  9/28/2009 – 7/31/2012
• Brain and Behavioral Responses to Infant Cues in Opiate Exposed Mothers
  NIH/NCATS T1 UL1 TR000433
  Swain (PI)
  1/1/12 – 12/30/12
• Early Postpartum Maternal Neural Adaptations: Hormones, Behavior & Mood Disorders
  NIH/NCATS UL1 TR000433
  Swain (PI)
  5/1/12 – 11/31/15
• Brain Mechanisms of Parent-Child Intervention
  NIH/NCATS UL1 TR000433
  Swain (PI)
  1/1/13 – 12/30/14
• Poverty, Chronic Stress and Neural Regulation of Maternal Mood and Parenting
  NIH R21 HD078797
  Swain (Consultant)
  8/1/14 – 7/31/17
• Postpartum Mood Disorders: Early Neurohormonal Biomarkers of Risk and Resilience
  Brain and Behavior Research Foundation (NARSAD) Independent Investigator Award
  Swain (PI)
  9/15/13 – 9/14/15
• Training in Developmental Science to Improve Child Health and Well-Being
  NIH T32 HD079350
  Swain (Co-I)
  5/1/15 – 9/30/20
• Psychological Effects of Helping Behavior in Older Adults
  NIH R56 AG049795
  Swain (Consultant)
  8/15/16 – 4/30/19
• Opioids and Maternal Brain-Behavior Adaptation During the Early Postpartum
  NIH/NIDA R01 DA047336
  Swain (PI)
  9/30/2019 - 7/31/2026
• Effects of Buprenorphine Maintenance Treatment on Maternal, Fetal and Neonatal Stress
  Peter F. McManus Charitable Trust
  Swain & Fox (MPI)
  12/31/2020 - 12/31/2023
• Postpartum Intervention for Mothers with Opioid Use Disorders - Brain-Behavior Mechanisms
  NIH/NIDA R61/33 DA053688
  Swain (PI)
  7/1/2022 - 6/30/2028

PUBMED: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/myncbi/james.swain.1/bibliography/47441094/public/?sort=date&direction=ascending

Google Scholar: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=p4upPgUAAAAJ&hl=en

• Swain JE, Ho SS, Nakamura Y, Patterson G, Gopang M, Kim P (2024): Parent-Infant Adaptive Biobehavioral Intersubjectivity. In WAIMH Handbook of Infant and Early Childhood Mental Health. Biopsychosocial Factors, Volume One Edited by Joy D. Osofsky, Hiram E. Fitzgerald, Miri Keren, Kaija Puura, Springer Cham 2024; 12:205-226. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-48627-2
• Perkins SC, Ho SS, Evans GW, Liberzon I, Gopang M, Swain JE (2024). Language Processing Following Childhood Poverty: Evidence for Disrupted Neural Networks. Brain and Language, 252:105414. PMID: 38640643
• Swain J.E., Ho S.S. (2021). Opioids and Maternal Brain-Behavior Adaptation. Neuropsychopharmacology 46(1):265-266. doi: 10.1038/s41386-020-00858-7. PMID: 32913343
• Ho SS, Muzik M, Rosenblum KL, Morelen D, Nakamura Y, Swain JE (2020) Potential Neural Mediators of Parenting Intervention Effects on Maternal Intersubjectivity and Stress Resilience. Frontiers in Psychiatry, Social Cognition 11:568824. doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.568824. eCollection 2020. PMID: 33363481
• Swain JE, Ho SS, Fox H, Garry D, Brummelte S (2019). Effects of Opioids on the Parental Brain in Health and Disease. Frontiers in Neuroendocrinology 100766 PMID: 31128130PMID: 31128130
• Bornstein, M.H., Putnick, D.L., Rigo, P., Esposito, G., Swain, J.E., Suwalsky, J.T. D., Su, X., Du, X., Zhang, K., Cote, L.R., De Pisapia, N., Venuti, P. (2017). Neurobiology of Culturally Common Maternal Responses to Infant Cry. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences U S A, 114(45):E9465-E9473. PMID: 29078366
• Swain JE, Ho SS, Rosenblum KL, Morelen D, Dayton CJ, Muzik M (2017) Parent-Child Intervention Decreases Stress and Increases Maternal Brain Responses and Connectivity in response to Own Baby-Cry: An Exploratory Study. Development and Psychopathology 2017 May;29(2):535-553. PMID: 28401845
• Ho SS, Swain JE (2017). Depression alters maternal extended amygdala response and functional connectivity during distress signals in attachment relationship. Behavioral Brain Research 15;325(Pt B):290-296. PMID: 28263829,
• Kim P, Evans GW, Angstadt M, Ho SS, Sripada CS, Swain JE, Liberzon I, Phan KL (2013). Effects of childhood poverty and chronic stress on emotion regulatory brain function in adulthood. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 110(46), 18442-7. PMID: 24145409
• Kim P, Feldman R, Leckman JF, Mayes LC, Swain JE (2011). Breastfeeding, Brain Activation to Own Infant Cry, and Maternal Sensitivity. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 52(8), 907-15. PMID: 21501165 (TIME selection as #3 among top 10 new findings in parenting)

• 2026 Invited Plenary to World Association of Infant Mental Health
• 2025 Symposium Speaker at International Meetings on the Neuroscience of Parenting
• 2024 Symposium Speaker at International Marcé Society
• 2023 International Behavioral Neuroscience Society (2023)
• 2021-25 Regular Member of NIH study section: Psychosocial Development, Risk & Prevention (PDRP)
• 2021 Awards for: (1) Greatest Academic Achievement for Clinical Researcher and (2) Research Proposals, Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Health, Stony Brook University.
• 2020 “Hot Topic” Award and presentation at 59th Annual ACNP Meeting
• 2018 Invited plenary & workshop speaker for Australian Faculty of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry
• 2015-16 Invited faculty/speaker, 28th Annual Gravens Conference; UM Ambulatory Psychiatry Clinical Service Award; Symposium at AACAP
• 2013 Brain and Behavior Research Foundation Independent Investigator Award; UM: Psychiatry Clinical Service Award & Injury Center Award; University of British Columbia Annual Research Professorship in Developmental Neuroscience and Child Health,
• 2014 Invited plenary & master class speaker for World Association of Infant Mental Health; Invited speaker at Center for Children and Families International conference, University of Notre Dame
• 2012 MCubed Award, Center for Human Growth and Development Research, Institute for Clinical Health Research UM; Invited speaker at NIH/NIMHD Health Disparities Summit
• 2011 TIME: #3 of top 10 new findings in parenting; “Hot Topic” Award at 50th Annual ACNP Meeting, UM: Michigan Institute for Clinical Health Research (MICHR) Award, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation - Health and Society Scholar Award & UM OVPR Award
• 2010 Todd Ouida Child Anxiety & Depression Clinical Scholar Award, University of Michigan (UM); Klingenstein Third Generation Foundation Award (Child Mental Health)
• 2009 Top 10 most cited paper, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
• 2008 Outstanding Mentor Award, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP); “Hot Topic” Award at 47th Annual American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP)
• 2007 NARSAD Young Investigator Award; Top 10 abstract, 13th Annual Human Brain Mapping Meeting; Best Poster, 13th European Society for Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Congress; Society for Neuroscience Public Education and Communication award
• 2006 American Psychiatric Association + Tourette’s Syndrome Association Young Investigator Award

• Fellow member of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
• American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• Society for Biological Psychiatry
• World Association for Infant Mental Health