Publications

A new study finds lesbian and bisexual teen girls are more likely than heterosexual girls to close down communication with their parents over the years. This loss of parent-child communication was linked to greater risk for marijuana and cigarette use when the teen turned 18, report Department of Psychiatry researchers and collaborators in the Journal of Adolescence. Most teens pull away from their parents as they...

Suicidal behavior is often misunderstood as a strategic decision that follows a thorough evaluation of circumstances, alternative solutions and possible deterrents. Yet, clinicians know that those at-risk for suicide may not reliably assess the proportion of triggering circumstances relative to the impact of the suicidal act. Suicide can, at times, be especially difficult to understand because although it may...

Placebo responses are common in clinical trials of depression treatments. However, how the expectation of treatment benefits patients is not well understood, in part because it is challenging to simulate these expectations in experimental designs. In an article appearing in Translational Psychiatry, Department of Psychiatry researchers Assistant Professor Marta Peciña, MD, PhD, and Associate Professor Alexandre...

A recent study in Molecular Psychiatry shares findings that help explain how antipsychotic drugs might contribute to the development of conditions such as diabetes and obesity by influencing dopamine receptors outside of the brain. The study’s lead author, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Cell Biology Zachary Freyberg, MD, PhD, shared how this investigation evolved and considered avenues for further research...

One of the greatest challenges associated with treating substance use disorders is the heightened attention users give to drug-associated cues, which can produce intense cravings and lead to relapse. One way to reduce the influence of these cues is through extinction learning, in which the cues are presented when the drug is not available, with the goal of reducing the intensity of the association between cocaine...

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a highly heritable mental illness in which affected individuals experience alternating periods of mania and depression. For more than 15 years, Pitt Department of Psychiatry researchers have been conducting longitudinal assessments of families with BD aimed at identifying the earliest signs of the disorder. The latest analysis of this neuroimaging data, recently published in the journal...