Publications

Nearly half of U.S. high school students report being sexually active, and youth with psychiatric disorders engage in risky sexual behaviors at increased rates. Although studies have implicated mood, anxiety, disruptive, personality, and substance use disorders specifically in sexual risk behaviors, little is known about the temporal association between specific psychiatric disorders in youth and sexual risk...

Pediatric anxiety disorders begin in childhood or early adolescence and frequently lead to other psychiatric disorders in adulthood, including anxiety disorders and depression. Anxiety disorders are associated with an overactive action monitoring system, as indexed by a larger event-related potential named the error-related negativity (ERN). This leads researchers to hypothesize that it could represent a potential...

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a devastating psychiatric disorder and leading cause of disability worldwide. It affects women approximately twice as often as men, and incidence and symptoms differ between the sexes, affirming the importance of studying brain pathology of depression in both men and women. Women are three times as likely to have atypical depression, with hypersomnia and weight gain, suggesting...

Understanding the mechanisms by which N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors (NMDARs) regulate cortical circuit function is crucial for testing hypotheses that NMDAR hypofunction is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Recent studies reveal that presynaptic NMDARs control transmitter release at cortical synapses, suggesting novel mechanisms of NMDAR action in cortical circuits. If presynaptic NMDARs enhance...

Most studies use individual sleep characteristics to predict health outcomes. However, a recent paradigmatic shift in sleep research has led investigators to study sleep through a “sleep health” framework. Within this framework, sleep is viewed as a multidimensional pattern of sleep-wakefulness that promotes physical and mental well-being and is characterized along multiple domains including duration, continuity...

Chronic dysfunction in social relationships is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and limited research exists regarding the social networks among individuals with the disorder. Examining differences in social integration, social support, and relationship characteristics in social networks may be critical to understanding the character and costs of social difficulties experienced by these...