Faculty

Neal D Ryan, MD

Joaquim Puig-Antich Professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical and Translational Science

Contact Details

121 Meyran Avenue, Room 320
Pittsburgh
 
PA
 
15213
Email

Education & Training

MD
Yale University, School of Medicine
Psychiatry, New York State Psychiatric Institute, Columbia University
Child Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC

Specialty Certifications

Board Certification
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)

Professional Affiliations

Fellow, American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
Member, American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Member, Society of Biological Psychiatry

Research Interests

Machine learning and big data in psychiatry
Selected Research Publications & Products
  1. Westbrook CA, Schlund M, Silk JS, Forbes EE, Ryan ND, Dahl RE, McMakin DL, Kendall PC, Mannarino A, Ladouceur CD. The role of reward-related brain activity in response to treatment and later depression severity: data from a randomized controlled trial in early adolescents with anxiety disorders. Transl Psychiatry. 2025 Aug 16;15(1):286. doi: 10.1038/s41398-025-03388-2. PMID: 40818984; PMCID: PMC12357957.
  2. Miranda O, Kiehl S, Qi X, Ryan ND, Kirisci L, Brannock MD, Kosten T, Wang Y, Wang L. Enhancing post-traumatic stress disorder patient assessment: Leveraging Natural Language Processing for Research of Domain Criteria Identification using electronic medical records. Res Sq [Preprint]. 2024 Feb 21:rs.3.rs-3973337. doi: 10.21203/rs.3.rs-3973337/v1. Update in: BMC Med Inform Decis Mak. 2024 Jun 4;24(1):154. doi: 10.1186/s12911-024-02554-8. PMID: 38464073; PMCID: PMC10925404.
  3. Gupta T, Eckstrand KL, Lenniger CJ, Haas GL, Silk JS, Ryan ND, Phillips ML, Flores LE Jr, Pizzagalli DA, Forbes EE. Anhedonia in adolescents at transdiagnostic familial risk for severe mental illness: Clustering by symptoms and mechanisms of association with behavior. J Affect Disord. 2024 Feb 15;347:249-261. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2023.11.062. Epub 2023 Nov 21. PMID: 37995926; PMCID: PMC10843785.
  4. Han S, Zhang RF, Shi L, Richie R, Liu H, Tseng A, Quan W, Ryan N, Brent D, Tsui FR. Classifying social determinants of health from unstructured electronic health records using deep learning-based natural language processing. J Biomed Inform. 2022 Mar;127:103984. doi: 10.1016/j.jbi.2021.103984. Epub 2022 Jan 7. PMID: 35007754.
  5. Tsui FR, Shi L, Ruiz V, Ryan ND, Biernesser C, Iyengar S, Walsh CG, Brent DA. Natural language processing and machine learning of electronic health records for prediction of first-time suicide attempts. JAMIA Open. 2021 Mar 17;4(1):ooab011. doi: 10.1093/jamiaopen/ooab011. PMID: 33758800; PMCID: PMC7966858.

Clinical Interests

Childhood/adolescent depression & anxiety

Education Interests

Research mentorship of early career faculty; Research design mentoring; Machine learning and big data in psychiatry
Selected Education Publications & Products
  1. Saunders J, Gopalan P, Puri N, Azzam PN, Zhou L, Ghinassi F, Jain A, Travis M, Ryan ND. Psychosomatic Medicine for Non-Psychiatric Residents: Video Educationand Incorporation of Technology. Acad Psychiatry. 2015 Dec;39(6):649-53. doi:10.1007/s40596-015-0311-3. Epub 2015 Mar 31. PubMed PMID: 25825227.
  2. Jacobson SL, Travis MJ, Solai L, MacPhee E, Reynolds CF 3rd, Ryan ND, Roth LH, Kupfer DJ. Preparing the next generation of leaders in clinician-education andacademic administration. Acad Psychiatry. 2010 May-Jun;34(3):224-8. doi:10.1176/appi.ap.34.3.224. PubMed PMID: 20431105.
  3. Gilbert AR, Tew JD Jr, Reynolds CF 3rd, Pincus HA, Ryan N, Nash K, Kupfer DJ. A developmental model for enhancing research training during psychiatry residency. Acad Psychiatry. 2006 Jan-Feb;30(1):55-62. PubMed PMID: 16473996.
  4. Reynolds CF 3rd, Martin C, Brent D, Ryan N, Dahl RE, Pilkonis P, Marcus MD, Kupfer DJ. Postdoctoral clinical-research training in psychiatry: A model for teaching grant writing and other research survival skills and for increasingclarity of mentoring expectations. Acad Psychiatry. 1998 Sep;22(3):190-6. doi:10.1901/jaba.1998.22-190. PubMed PMID: 19617924; PubMed Central PMCID:PMC2711541.

JAMA Network Open: Risk for Suicide Attempts Assessed Using the Patient Health Questionnaire–9 Modified for Teens

David Brent, MD

Suicide rates among adolescents have been increasing for more than 15 years. One strategy for reversing this disturbing trend is to screen for depression and suicidal risk in the pediatric primary care setting. The Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), a self-report screen for depression in adults and adolescents during outpatient visits, has been shown to effectively detect major depression. In addition, item 9...

Science Translational Medicine: Sleep-Sensitive Dopamine Receptor Expression in Male Mice Underlies Attention Deficits After a Critical Period of Early Adversity

Cameron and Colleagues Science: Translational Medicine 2024

In both children and animal models, adverse childhood experiences lead to cognitive and behavioral impairments that have profound influence on behavior and health throughout the lifespan. To improve our understanding of the long-lasting impact of early stress exposure, the specific brain circuits impacted by early stress, and the mechanisms underlying each aspect of the influence of stress exposure, investigators...

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium: Presenting Translational Research in Developmental Psychopathology

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium Collage

The Developmental Affective Neuroscience Symposium (DANS) presents recent translational research in developmental psychopathology. The 2023 DANS theme was “ Neurodevelopment of Regulatory Systems: A Focus on Emotions and Motivation,” featuring research focused on the development of neural networks and circuitries implicated in regulating or modulating neural response to emotionally or motivationally salient...

Pitt Psychiatry Awarded $16.2M National Institute of Mental Health Center Grant Focused on Addressing Adolescent Suicide, with Focus on Black and Hispanic Youth

ETUDES Investigators

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has awarded Pitt Psychiatry a Center of Excellence (P50) grant renewal for Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES), led by David Brent, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Clinical and Translational Science, and Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies). The Center is co-led by Bruce Rollman, MD...

Now in The American Journal of Psychiatry: Neural Reward Circuitry & Psychotherapy in Youths with Anxiety Disorders

Forbes & Colleagues American Journal of Psychiatry 2021

In a recent American Journal of Psychiatry study, Pitt Psychiatry investigators examined the association between function in the brain’s reward circuitry and response to psychotherapy in youths with anxiety disorders. Recent research has indicated the importance of reward in the pathophysiology and treatment of anxiety, suggesting the potential involvement of reward circuitry in treatment response. The team of...