David M. Swope

Biography

David M. Swope, M.D., FANA, is Clinical Professor of Neurology and Director of Movement Disorders at the University of California, Irvine. He received his Doctor of Medicine from Loma Linda University School of Medicine and completed a Movement Disorders Fellowship at Mt. Sinai Medical Center in New York. His clinical and research focus centers on the evaluation and treatment of movement disorders, including parkinsonism, tremor, dystonia, tics, chorea, and gait disorders, with particular expertise in botulinum toxin injections and deep brain stimulation management.

Swope is an elected Fellow of the American Neurologic Association. Throughout his career, he has founded and directed movement disorders programs at multiple institutions, including establishing the Movement Disorders division at Loma Linda University in 1997, where he served as Clinical Director until 2013. He developed comprehensive clinical services that included deep brain stimulation programs, botulinum toxin injection clinics, and satellite clinics, while also launching fellowship training programs in movement disorders. He has held faculty positions at New York University, Mt. Sinai Health System, and Northwell Health before joining UC Irvine in 2020.

Swope has served as principal investigator or sub-investigator on numerous multi-center clinical trials investigating treatments for Parkinson's disease, dystonia, and other movement disorders. He has mentored multiple fellows who have gone on to academic positions at institutions including Yale, Columbia, Rutgers, and Weill Cornell. His publications include peer-reviewed articles on movement disorders pharmacotherapy, botulinum toxin treatment, and clinical trial results, as well as book chapters on Parkinson's disease and dystonia. He holds a patent for a composition and method for decreasing neurologic symptomatology using sildenafil for treatment of dyskinesia in Parkinson's disease.

Education

• B.A. in Biology, Union College, 1983
• M.D., Loma Linda University, School of Medicine, 1989

Distinctions

• Fellow, American Neurologic Association, 2012
• Walter E. Macpherson Society Award for Student Research, 1987