News

Disruptions of the circadian clock can contribute to or exacerbate vulnerability to substance use disorder in some populations. The laboratory of Dr. Colleen McClung (Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical and Translational Science) investigates the mechanisms by which circadian genes that regulate mood and impulsivity are involved in the risk for substance abuse. In a recent study published in the Journal of...

Congratulations to Department of Psychiatry postdoctoral fellows Laurie Compere, PhD, and Irene Tung, PhD, who have received Best Poster awards from the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association. Dr. Compere was honored for her poster entitled “Sex Differences During Real-Time fMRI Amygdala Neurofeedback for Major Depressive Orders.” Her mentor is Kymberly Young, PhD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr...

Robert Hudak, MD, primarily works with adults with obsessive compulsive disorder at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH), but during the last four years he has also treated patients through WPH’s telepsychiatry program, which averages 10,000 visits annually. Recently, Dr. Hudak traveled to the rural outpatient clinic that serves the patients he treats via telepsychiatry. The trip provided Dr. Hudak with the...

Compulsive behaviors are some of the most debilitating symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Unfortunately, these behaviors are notoriously resistant to current treatments. A recent study by Pitt Department of Psychiatry researchers is the first to identify abnormal connectivity between two brain regions, secondary motor area and striatum, as a possible cause of compulsive behavior, potentially opening...

For people living with bipolar disorder, challenging family relations can both result from and aggravate the disorder’s symptoms. Existing studies that examine the family environment of young people with familial risk for bipolar disorder have not distinguished whether stressors—such as high rates of conflict—are uniquely related to this disorder or are similarly experienced by families affected by other, non...

This summer marks the 10th year of the Undergraduate Research Fellowship Program, funded by the NIMH Conte Center for Translational Mental Health Research. The competitive 10-week summer program provides undergraduate students studying neuroscience, biology and psychology, among other fields, the opportunity to conduct hands-on, cutting-edge neuroscience research under the mentorship of clinical and basic...