Faculty

Marta Peciña, MD, PhD

Marta Peciña, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychiatry

Contact Details

3811 O'Hara St.
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Email
Website
Translational Neuropsychopharmacology & Neuroimaging Lab
Assistant
Eli Strohecker
stroheckereg@upmc.edu

Education & Training

MD
University of Navarre, School of Medicine
PhD
Neuroscience, University of Navarre, School of Medicine
Psychiatry, University of Navarre Medical Center
Neuroimaging, University of Michigan

Professional Affiliations

Member, Society of Biological Psychiatry
Member, Society of Interdisciplinary Placebo Studies
Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology

Selected Honors & Awards

Young Physician Scientist Award, American Society of Clinical Investigation
Rising Star Award, Pittsburgh Foundation
New Investigator Award, International Society for CNS Clinical Trials and Methodology

Research Interests

Neuroimaging predictors of treatment response; Interactions between belief, learning & mood; Computational models of placebo effects
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Handoko K, Neppach A, Snyder I, Karim HT, Dombrovski AY, Pecina M. Expectancy-mood neural dynamics predict mechanisms of short- and long-term antidepressant placebo effects. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2025 Aug;10(8):794-803. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2025.01.002. Epub 2025 Jan 11.
  2. Pecina M, Chen J, Karp JF, Dombrovski AY. Dynamic feedback between antidepressant placebo expectancies and mood are encoded in the dorsal attention and salience networks. JAMA Psychiatry, 2023 Apr 1;80(4):389-398. PMID: 36857039, PMCID: PMC9979016.
  3. Pecina M, Chen J, Lyew T, Karp JF, Dombrovski AY. Opioid antagonist naltrexone partially abolishes the antidepressant placebo effect and reduces OFC encoding of reinforcement. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2021 Mar 6;S2451-9022(21)00055-0. doi: 10.1016/j.bpsc.2021.02.009.
  4. Chen J, Mizuno A, Lyew T, Karim H, Karp JF, Dombrovski AY, Pecina M. Naltrexone modulates contextual processing in depression. Neuropsychopharmacol. (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-020-00809-2.
  5. Pecina M, Dombrovski AY, Price R, Karim H. Neurocomputational mechanisms of antidepressant placebo effects. J Psychiatry Brain Sci. 2021;6: Published online 2021 Feb 15. doi: 10.20900/jpbs.20210001. PubMed Central PMCID: PMC7963355.

Clinical Interests

Depression; Neuroimaging; Neuromodulation

Education Interests

Research mentorship; Resident education; Career development

Biological Psychiatry – The Impact of Intravenous Ketamine on Attentional Bias: Probing Mechanisms of Rapid-Acting Antidepressant Effects in Two Clinical Studies

Biological Psychiatry

Intravenous ketamine produces reliable, fast-acting, and potent antidepressant effects even among individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine can also be a powerful experimental tool to provide a more precise evaluation of neurocognitive mechanisms underlying reduction in depression symptoms. Cognitive theorists of depression have long posited that systematic alterations in attentional bias (giving...

Psychiatry Residents Present Robust Research at the 7th Annual Psychiatry Research Pathway Symposium

PRP Residents and Mentors

The Psychiatry Research Pathway (PRP) Symposium provides UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital residents engaged in research the opportunity to present their work to fellow residents, faculty mentors, T32 postdoctoral research program directors, and interested members of our academic community. This year, the PRP Symposium began with a panel discussion focused on interventional psychiatry, moderated by Katherine Lyman...

Pitt Psychiatry’s 2024 Research Day, Part I: A Research and Networking Bonanza

Research Day 2024

The 22nd annual Department of Psychiatry Research Day, held on June 13, 2024, was the most highly attended Research Day ever, with 544 faculty members, trainees, and staff gathering at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum on the University of Pittsburgh campus. Lunchtime Roundtables More than 260 individuals participated in or facilitated one of 19 roundtable discussion groups focused on topics including...

Pitt Psychiatry News from the 2023 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Annual Meeting

2023 ACNP Annual Meeting Collage

Many University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry faculty and trainees attended the 2023 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology (ACNP) annual meeting to learn about and present new research, and connect with colleagues. Below is a recap of Pitt Psychiatry news from the meeting: Honorific Award Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab) (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and...

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...