Department of Psychiatry

Faculty of Medicine

Tomas Hajek

Professor

tomas hajek
Department of Psychiatry

Email: tomas.hajek@dal.ca
Phone: 902-473-8299
Mailing Address: 
Mood Disorders Clinic
Room 3094, AJLB
5909 Veterans' Memorial Lane
Halifax, NS B3H 2E2
 
Research Topics:
  • Affective disorder
  • Bipolar disorder
  • Brain imaging
  • Family high-risk studies
  • Lithium
  • Magnetic resonance spectrocsopy (MRS)
  • Meta-analysis


Related information

Education

MD, 1rd  School of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic
PhD in Neuroscience, 3rd  School of Medicine, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Research interests

Dr. Hajek's research focuses on studying clinical variables associated with brain changes in bipolar disorders, including genetic risk, treatment with Li, illness burden (numbers of episodes, duration of illness) and most recently diabetes/prediabetes. He is also interested in clinical evolution of bipolar disorders and application of machine learning to brain imaging data.

Selected publications   

  • Kaufmann T, Kenney J, Kircher TTJ, Krug A, Lagerberg TV, Lenroot RK, López-Jaramillo C, Machado-Vieira R, Malt UF, McDonald C, Mitchell PB, Mwangi B, Nabulsi L, Opel N, Overs BJ, Pineda-Zapata JA, Pomarol-Clotet E, Redlich R, Roberts G, Rosa PG, Salvador R, Satterthwaite TD, Soares JC, Stein DJ, Temmingh HS, Trappenberg T, Uhlmann A, van Haren NEM, Vieta E, Westlye LT, Wolf DH, Yüksel D, Zanetti MV, Andreassen OA, Thompson PM, Hajek T; ENIGMA Bipolar Disorders Working Group. Using structural MRI to identify bipolar disorders - 13 site machine learning study in 3020 individuals from the ENIGMA Bipolar Disorders Working Group. Mol Psychiatry. 2018 Aug 31. doi: 10.1038/s41380-018-0228-9. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30171211.
  • Hajek T, Franke K, Kolenic M, Capkova J, Matejka M, Propper L, Uher R, Stopkova P, Novak T, Paus T, Kopecek M, Spaniel F, Alda M. Brain Age in Early Stages of Bipolar Disorders or Schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull. 2017 Dec 20. doi: 10.1093/schbul/sbx172. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29272464.
  • Hajek T, Calkin C, Blagdon R, Slaney C, Alda M. Type 2 diabetes mellitus: a potentially modifiable risk factor for neurochemical brain changes in bipolar disorders. Biol Psychiatry. 2015 Feb 1;77(3):295-303. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2013.11.007. Epub 2013 Nov 13. PubMed PMID: 24331546.
  • Hajek T, Bauer M, Simhandl C, Rybakowski J, O'Donovan C, Pfennig A, König B, Suwalska A, Yucel K, Uher R, Young LT, MacQueen G, Alda M. Neuroprotective effect of lithium on hippocampal volumes in bipolar disorder independent of long-term treatment response. Psychol Med. 2014 Feb;44(3):507-17. doi:10.1017/S0033291713001165. Epub 2013 May 31. PubMed PMID: 23721695.
  • Hajek T, Cullis J, Novak T, Kopecek M, Blagdon R, Propper L, Stopkova P, Duffy A, Hoschl C, Uher R, Paus T, Young LT, Alda M. Brain structural signature of familial predisposition for bipolar disorder: replicable evidence for involvement of the right inferior frontal gyrus. Biol Psychiatry. 2013 Jan 15;73(2):144-52. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2012.06.015. Epub 2012 Jul 20. PubMed PMID: 22818781; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4830692.

Selected awards and honours

  • Dalhousie Clinical Research Scholar
  • Hlavka´s Prize for the best students and young researchers at Czech universities