[1] Pollock's research focused on optimizing treatments for depression and dementia-related behavioral disturbances by studying neurochemical selectivity, pharmacokinetics, and age-related changes in drug metabolism and pharmacodynamics.
[12] Pollock's research has centered on improving treatments for late-life depression and cognitive decline, emphasizing the impact of pharmacological factors and neuropsychological functioning in older adults and he also holds a patent for his work.
His work established that both major enzymes generally remain stable with age and that the majority of dysfunctional metabolism is due to interacting medications and medical conditions, with genetically slow amd fast metabolizers persisting..[15] Alongside colleagues, he explored escitalopram pharmacokinetics in depression patients, and noted that CYP2C19 genotype, age, and weight significantly impacted drug clearance.
[20] Building upon this, he explored CYP2D6 gene variations and found that impaired enzyme activity in elderly patients led to higher nortriptyline plasma concentrations and lower required doses.
[27] In collaboration with Robert Bies, he characterized the population pharmacokinetics of perphenazine in Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) patients, identifying that race and smoking status significantly influenced its clearance.
[28] In addition, he evaluated olanzapine concentration variability in patients with Alzheimer's and schizophrenia in CATIE, and observed that smoking status, sex, and race accounted for significant differences in drug clearance.
[31] Pollock questioned the common clinical practice of using antipsychotics for managing severe agitation or psychosis in dementia patients, leading controlled trials that demonstrated the benefits of serotonergic drugs for these symptoms instead.
[32][33][34] He developed and refined an assay to measure patients' serum anticholinergic burden from multiple medications, assessing its role in cognitive impairment and delirium in both healthy older adults and those with dementia.