Publications

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a familial illness that is associated with functional impairment and increased risk for suicide and substance use. The disorder is highly heritable, and research has identified many common genetic variants associated with risk for the disorder. Studies including the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study (BIOS) have found that offspring of parents with BD are at elevated, specific risk to...

Determining how brain activity gives rise to compulsive behaviors is vital for understanding the neural underpinnings of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Individuals with OCD display disrupted performance and abnormal lateral orbitofrontal cortex activity during reversal learning tasks, yet it is unknown whether compulsions and reversal learning deficits share a common neural substrate. A group of investigators...

Neuroimaging studies of structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) provide invaluable insights into the changes underlying neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease, but frequently combine data collected from multiple scanners and experimental conditions. These conditions can yield data containing substantial technical variability and biases due to differences in sites, scanners, and image...

Severe worry is a complex transdiagnostic phenotype independently associated with increased morbidity, including cardiovascular diseases, cognitive impairment, and accelerated brain aging. A group of investigators, including Pitt Psychiatry scientists Andrew Gerlach, PhD (postdoctoral scholar); Helmet Karim, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Bioengineering); Joseph Kazan, MD (postdoctoral scholar); Howard...

Pitt Psychiatry investigators have examined the social determinants of risk for alcohol use disorder among Black drinkers, who have elevated rates of alcohol-related health problems and mortality compared to White drinkers. Sarah Pedersen, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology); Traci Kennedy, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Jordan Holmes, BA, (Research Project Assistant); and Brooke Molina...

In fall 2021, Alzheimer’s Disease International published World Alzheimer Report 2021: Journey though the diagnosis of dementia, a compendium of research on the disease, currently the seventh leading cause of mortality worldwide. The report addresses numerous challenges and complexities—including the prevalence of myths and misinformation—that inhibit effective diagnosis and treatment Alzheimer’s disease. Pitt...