Dr. Lindy E. Harrell, MD, PhD

Expert Publications

• Medical comorbidity in black and white patients with Alzheimer's disease.
• The effect of central cholinergic and noradrenergic denervation on hippocampal sympathetic ingrowth and apoptosis-like reactivity in the rat.
• Gender differences in glutathione metabolism in Alzheimer's disease.
• Pro- and anti-apoptotic evidence for cholinergic denervation and hippocampal sympathetic ingrowth in rat dorsal hippocampus.
• Sympathetic sprouting drives hippocampal cholinergic reinnervation that prevents loss of a muscarinic receptor-dependent long-term depression at CA3-CA1 synapses.
• Hemoglobin binding to A beta and HBG2 SNP association suggest a role in Alzheimer's disease.
• Effects of chronic stress and interleukin-10 gene polymorphisms on antibody response to tetanus vaccine in family caregivers of patients with Alzheimer's disease.
• Genetic association of neurotrophic tyrosine kinase receptor type 2 (NTRK2) With Alzheimer's disease.
• Candidate gene discovery procedure after follow-up confirmatory analyses of candidate regions of interests for Alzheimer's disease in the NIMH sibling dataset.
• Clinical interview assessment of financial capacity in older adults with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

Media Releases

Get to know Neurologist Dr. Lindy E. Harrell, who serves patients in Birmingham, Alabama.

The UAB Alzheimer’s Disease Center was chartered by the Board of Trustees on December 13, 1991, with Dr. Harrell, a seasoned neurologist, as the founding director. 

She joined the UAB faculty in 1983 as the fourth member of the new Department of Neurology and established a thriving program of research and clinical care in Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. She led the Center until 2005 and retired in 2013.

Holding an academic title, Dr. Harrell has been serving as Professor Emeritus of Neurology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine since 2011.

With opiate addiction being one of her areas of research, she is interested in researching why some individuals are successful with medical treatment for opiate use disorder versus those who are not.

Back in 1977, Dr. Harrell graduated with her medical degree from the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine. She then went on to perform her internship in internal medicine, residency in neurology, and fellowship in geriatric medicine at Duke University Medical Center.

Among her professional affiliations, Dr. Harrell is an active member of the American Society of Addiction Medicine, the American Medical Association, and the American Academy of Neurology.

Furthermore, she is board-certified through the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. It is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to serving the professions of psychiatry and neurology.

Neurology is a branch of medicine dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Neurologists are licensed medical specialists who diagnose and treat disorders that affect the brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles of patients. They examine a patient’s mental and physical status, conduct medical tests and scans, and evaluate the results to diagnose and treat the patient.

Among her philanthropic endeavors, Dr. Harrell is Vice President & Board Member of Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama.

Outside of practicing medicine, she enjoys hiking. Her favorite place to vacation is the Great Smoky Mountains, and her favorite professional publication is the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

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