Faculty

Alexandre Y Dombrovski, MD

Alexandre Y Dombrovski, MD

Pittsburgh Foundation Endowed Professor in Brain and Mind Research and Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor Psychology

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Email
Website
Decision Neuroscience and Psychopathology Lab
Assistant
Mandy Collier
collieral@upmc.edu

Education & Training

MD
Sechenov Moscow Medical Academy
Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC
Geriatric Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC

Research Interests

Decision-making in psychopathology; Reinforcement learning
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Dombrovski AY, Luna B, Hallquist MN. Differential reinforcement encoding along the hippocampal long axis helps resolve the explore-exploit dilemma. Nature Communications, 2020 26;11(1):5407
  2. Szanto, K., Galfalvy, H., Kenneally, L., Almasi, R., Dombrovski, A.Y. Predictors of serious suicidal behavior in late-life depression. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 2020, 0Volume 40, 85-98.
  3. Dombrovski AY*, Hallquist MN, Brown VM, Wilson J, Szanto K. Value-based choice, contingency learning, and suicidal behavior in mid- and late-life depression. Biol Psychiatry. 2019 Mar 15;85(6):506516. PMCID: PMC6380943
  4. Chase HW, Kumar P, Eickhoff S, Dombrovski AY. Reinforcement learning models and their neural correlates: an activation likelihood estimation meta-analysis. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioral Neuroscience, 2015 Jun;15(2):435459. PMCID: PMC4437864.
  5. Dombrovski AY, Szanto K., Clark L, Reynolds 3rd CF, Siegle, GJ. Reward signals, impulsivity, and attempted suicide in late-life depression. JAMA Psychiatry, 2013 Aug 7

Clinical Interests

Late-life suicide; Late-life depression
Selected Clinical Publications & Products
  1. Dombrovski AY, Cyranowski JM, Mulsant BH, Houck PR, Buysse DJ, Andreescu C, Thase ME, Mallinger AG, Frank E. Which symptoms predict recurrence of depression in women treated with maintenance interpersonal psychotherapy? Depress Anxiety 2008;25(12):1060-1066
  2. Dombrovski AY, Lenze EJ, Dew MA, Mulsant BH, Pollock BG, Houck PR, Reynolds CF. Maintenance treatment for old-age depression preserves health-related quality of life: a randomized controlled trial of paroxetine and interpersonal psychotherapy. J Am Geriatr Soc. 2007 Sep;55(9):1325-1332.
  3. Dombrovski AY, Mulsant BH, Houck PR, Mazumdar S, Lenze EJ, Andreescu C, Cyranowski JM, Reynolds CF. Residual symptoms and recurrence during maintenance treatment of late-life depression. J Affect Disord. 2007 Nov;103(1-3):77-82
  4. Dombrovski AY, Blakesley-Ball RE, Mulsant BH, Mazumdar S, Houck PR, Szanto K, Reynolds, CF. Speed of improvement in sleep disturbance and anxiety compared to core mood symptoms during acute treatment of depression in old age. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry. 2006 Jun;14(6):550-554
  5. Dombrovski AY, Mulsant BH, Haskett RF, Prudic J, Begley A, Sackeim H. Predictors of remission after ECT in unipolar major depression. J Clin Psychiatry. 2005 Aug;66(8):1043-1049.

Education Interests

Research mentorship
Selected Education Publications & Products
  1. Dombrovski AY, Hallquist MN. Search for solutions, learning, simulation, and choice processes in suicidal behavior. WIREs Cognitive Science. 2021; e1561
  2. Dombrovski AY, Rosenstock J. Bridging general medicine and psychiatry: providing general medical and preventive care for the severely mentally ill. Current Opinion in Psychiatry 17(6):523-529, November 2004.
  3. Dombrovski AY, Hallquist MN. The Decision Neuroscience Perspective on Suicidal Behavior: Evidence and Hypotheses. Current Opinion in Psychiatry, October 14, 2016.
  4. Dombrovski AY, Mulsant BH. ECT: the preferred treatment for severe depression in late life. International Psychogeriatrics 19(1):10-14, Published online by Cambridge University Press 13 Dec 2006.
  5. Dombrovski AY, Szanto K. Prevention of suicide in the elderly. Annals of Long-Term Care: Clinical Care and Aging; 13(11), 2005

JAMA Psychiatry: Exploration-Exploitation and Suicidal Behavior in Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression

Drs. Tsypes and Dombrovski

People who survive suicide attempts usually come to regret their choice of suicide attempt over constructive alternatives, suggesting that this choice is often an error of decision-making. In a crisis, decisions are often made during a complex sensorimotor interaction, with real or perceived time pressure, and a vast number of options that may become available and vanish dynamically. While there may be many choices...

New Research Captures How Learning to Cooperate Relates to “Dark” Personality Traits

Dr. Timothy Allen

A new study published in PNAS by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers describes how two personality traits, callousness and exploitativeness, are related to the way humans learn to cooperate in interpersonal relationships, and how this learning unfolds in the brain. The study represents an important step toward understanding whether differences in the way we learn from others impact the types of...

Science Advances: Reward-Based Option Competition in Human Dorsal Stream and Transition from Stochastic Exploration to Exploitation in Continuous Space

Dr. Alex Dombrovski

Organisms face a difficult dilemma between exploiting options that are known to be good and exploring alternative options that might be even better. This explore-exploit dilemma becomes especially hard when we move rapidly through a changing environment. As our primate ancestors adapted to hunting and foraging on swinging tree branches, they evolved dynamic maps of their environment in the dorsal or “where”...

University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Promotes Alex Dombrovski, MD, to Professor of Psychiatry

Alex Dombrovski, MD

We are pleased to announce that Alex Dombrovski, MD, has been promoted to Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Dombrovski received his MD from Moscow Medical Academy in Russia, then undertook an internship in internal medicine and residency in psychiatry. He completed psychiatry residency training and a geriatric psychiatry fellowship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital...

JAMA Psychiatry: Dynamic Feedback Between Antidepressant Placebo Expectancies and Mood

Marta Peciña, MD, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), conducts research focused on the mechanisms of antidepressant treatment response, and uses placebos to investigate how expectancies and learning mechanisms impact mood improvement. In a recent paper published in JAMA Psychiatry, Dr. Peciña and investigators including Alex Dombrovski, MD (Pittsburgh Foundation Endowed Professor in Brain and Mind Research and...