Faculty

Lauren M Bylsma, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara Street
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Phone 412-624-8363
Email
Website
Bylsma Research
Assistant
Emily Nettesheim
nettesheimec@upmc.edu

Education & Training

PhD
Clinical Psychology, University of South Florida
Clinical Psychology, VA Puget Sound, Seattle Division
Innovative Methods in Pathogenesis and Child Treatment Training, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Current Appointments

Co-Director, Center for Advanced Psychotherapy
Assistant Director, Hope Team (www.hopeteam.pitt.edu)

Professional Affiliations

Member, Society for Affective Science
Member, Anxiety and Depression Association of America
Member, Society for Research in Psychopathology
Member, Society for Ambulatory Assessment
Member, Society for Psychophysiological Research
Member, Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers

Selected Honors & Awards

Elected Fellow, Society for Psychophysiological Research
Early Career Award for Distinguished Contributions to Psychophysiology, Society for Psychophysiological Research
NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Brain & Behavior Research Foundation

Research Interests

Depression risk & developmental neuroscience; Emotional reactivity & regulation, reward process; Multimodal assessment of emotion, transdiagnostic
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Hu X, Sgherza T, Northrup J, Fresco DM, Naragon-Gainey K & Bylsma LM. (2024). From the Lab to Life: Evaluating the Validity of Physiological Measurements from Wearable Devices in Laboratory and Ambulatory Settings. Manuscript in Press. Behavior Research Methods.
  2. Evans SC, Hamilton JL, Boyd SI, Karlovich AR, Ladouceur CD, Silk JS & Bylsma LM.(2023). Daily associations between sleep and affect in youth at risk for psychopathology: The moderating role of externalizing symptoms. Manuscript in press at Child and Adolescent Psychopathology.
  3. Bylsma LM, Tan PZ, Silk JS, Forbes EE, McMakin DL, Dahl RE, Ryan ND & Ladouceur CD. (2022). The late positive potential during affective picture processing: Associations with daily life emotional functioning among adolescents with anxiety disorders. International Journal of Psychophysiology, 182: 70-80.
  4. Bylsma LM. (2021). Emotion context insensitivity in depression: Toward an integrated and contextualized approach. Psychophysiology, 58(2), e13715.
  5. Stone LB, McCormack CC & Bylsma LM. (2020). Cross system autonomic balance and regulation: Associations with depression and anxiety symptoms. Psychophysiology, 57(10), e13636.

Clinical Interests

Mood & anxiety disorders; adolescents/young adults; Clinical high risk for psychosis (CHR-p); Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
Selected Clinical Publications & Products
  1. Swartz HA, Bylsma LM, Fournier J, Spotts C, Cohn JF, Girard JM & Morency L-P. (2023). Randomized trial of brief interpersonal psychotherapy and brief cognitive behavioral therapy for depression delivered both in-person and by telehealth. Manuscript in press at Journal of Affective Disorders. Shared First-Authorship
  2. Gupta T, Antezana L, Porter C, Mayanil T, Bylsma LM, Maslar M & Horton LE. (2023). Skills Program for Awareness, Connectedness, and Empowerment: A Conceptual Framework of a Skills Group for Individuals with a Psychosis-Risk Syndrome. Manuscript in Press at Frontiers in Psychiatry Schizophrenia.
  3. Vail AK, Girard JM, Bylsma LM, Cohn JF, Fournier J, Swartz HA & Morency L.-P. (2022). Toward causal understanding of therapist-client relationships: A study of language modality and social entrainment. Proceedings of the 24th ACM International Conference on Multimodal Interaction. Bengaluru, India. Https://doi.org/10.1145/3536221.3556616
  4. Bylsma LM, Gracanin A & Vingerhoets A J. (2021). A clinical practice review of crying research. Psychotherapy, 58(1), 133.
  5. Bylsma LM, Gracanin A & Vingerhoets AJ. (2017) Why humans weep. In Blume-Marcovici (ed.), When Therapists Cry: Reflections on Therapists Tears in Therapy. New York, NY: Routledge.

Education Interests

Research mentoring; Clinical supervision; Mentoring residents & medical students
Selected Education Publications & Products
  1. Bylsma LM. (2018) Social Anxiety Disorder: Assessment and Management. CMEtoGO Psychiatry, 7(4). American Physician Institute. https://www.masterpsych.com/psychiatry-cme-to-go/
  2. Rottenberg J & Bylsma LM. (2014) Emotional functioning in depression. In Gotlib, I.H. & Hammen, C.L. (eds.). Handbook of Depression: Guildford Press.
  3. Bylsma LM & Panaite V. (2012) Depression. In Oxford Bibliographies Online: Psychology. ScholarOne Books.
  4. Bylsma LM & Rottenberg J. (2011) Uncovering the dynamics of emotion regulation and dysfunction in daily life with ecological momentary assessment. In Vingerhoets, A.J.J.M, Nyklicek, I. & Zeelenberg, M. (eds.),Emotion Regulation and Well-being (pp. 225-244). Springer, New York, NY.

Lauren Bylsma, PhD, Named a Society for Psychophysiological Research Fellow

Dr. Lauren Bylsma

We are pleased to announce that Lauren Bylsma, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Assistant Professor of Psychology), has been named a Society for Psychophysiological Research (SPR) Fellow. This honor recognizes the substantial and sustained contributions that Dr. Bylsma has made to the field of psychophysiology and to the SPR. Dr. Bylsma is a highly accomplished clinical psychologist and expert in child...

Randomized Trial of Brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression Delivered Both In-Person and by Telehealth

Swartz et al. Journal of Affective DIsorders 2023

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is associated with substantial psychosocial impairment, increased risk for suicide, and morbidity. As a first-line treatment for MDD, many patients receive cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), interventions that have been typically delivered face-to-face. Despite the ubiquity of telehealth following the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about...

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Lauren Bylsma, PhD, to Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Dr. Lauren Bylsma Promoted

We are delighted to announce that Lauren Bylsma, PhD , has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Bylsma earned her PhD in clinical psychology from the University of South Florida. She came to Pittsburgh for postdoctoral research training in the Department of Psychiatry’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded T32 training program for...

Pitt Psychiatry Awarded $11.5M National Institute of Mental Health Center Grant Focused on Investigating Emotional and Mental Health in Autistic Adults

ACE Center Grant Investigators

The National Institute of Mental Health has awarded the University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry an Autism Center of Excellence (P50) grant to fund “Mental Health in Autistic Adults: An RDoC Approach.” The University of Pittsburgh Autism Center of Excellence (ACE) will be led by Carla Mazefsky, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science). The University of Pittsburgh...

Pitt Psychiatry Hosts Virtual Research Matinee—An Afternoon of Discovery, Reflection, and Celebration 

Last week we reinvented our annual in-person Research Day as a virtual Research Matinee , a Department-wide exploration of innovative research, career reflections and honors for outstanding faculty and staff. Attendees included nearly 200 Psychiatry faculty, trainees, and staff, who tuned in for plenary speaker Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab), followed by the perennially popular Speed Dat(a)ing , in which six...