Please join us in congratulating Mariana Rieke, Kasey Godard, Cassidy Leasure, Scott Lewis, Bridget Leyland, and Alex Walters from the Department of Psychiatry Office of Grants and Contracts (OGC), who have been recognized by the University of Pittsburgh Health Sciences Research Administration Office. Mariana, Kasey, Cassidy, Scott, Bridget, and Alex received the following awards at the Research Administration Day...

Please join us in congratulating Patrick Buckley, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), who has been honored with two prestigious awards, a UPMC Physician Excellence Award and an Excellence in Patient Experience Award. Dr. Buckley was recently honored at the 2025 Dr. Loren Roth Quality and Patient Safety Awards Celebration. The UPMC Physician Excellence Award – New Physician Excellence in Clinical Care honors a...

The Psychiatry Research Pathway (PRP) Symposium provides UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital residents engaged in research the opportunity to present their work to fellow residents, faculty mentors, T32 postdoctoral research program directors, and interested members of our academic community. The PRP is led by Director and PRP alum Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), together with associate...

Alterations in reward-related brain activity have been linked to response to psychological treatment in adolescents with anxiety disorders. However, it remains unknown whether these effects are driven by reward anticipation or feedback, which reflect different functional roles in motivated behavior, or to what extent brain activity changes as a function of treatment response and relates to future depression. A team...

Rui Peixoto, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), is an expert in developmental neuroscience and investigates abnormalities in cortical and striatal development associated with autism spectrum disorder. He is senior author of recent papers published in Cell Reports and Molecular Psychiatry. “Our recent findings provide new insight into how the striatum and basal ganglia shape the maturation of prefrontal...

As adolescents increasingly use screen-based devices to watch videos, text, use social media, videochat, and play games, health care professionals have grown concerned that excessive screen time could contribute to mental health problems (such as depression) in this population. Excessive screen time may impact sleep duration and brain structural connectivity—such as white matter organization—which are critical for...

Congratulations to Alexis McCathern, MD (PGY5 child & adolescent psychiatry fellow; chief resident of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship), who has been recently recognized by the University of Pittsburgh/UPMC, as well as by the American Association for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP). Dr. McCathern has been selected as a recipient of the AACAP Educational Outreach Program (EOP) for child and...

The Department of Psychiatry extends a warm welcome to three new faculty members: Anastasia Samaras, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry) Dr. Samaras earned her MD from Eastern Virginia Medical School, where she additionally completed psychiatry residency, serving as chief resident. Dr. Samaras then undertook geriatric psychiatry fellowship training at Mass General Brigham in Boston, and served for two years as a...

Please join us in welcoming the 2025-2026 Clinical Psychology Intern class! The American Psychological Association-accredited program is led by Leslie Horton, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology), and Rebecca Price, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Psychology). This yearlong experience adheres to a clinical science model of training and professional...

The prefrontal cortex is critical for regulating affective and motivational processing, and dysfunction of these processes is associated with psychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and drug and alcohol use disorders. Because prefrontal cortex function is maintained by a diverse pool of GABAergic interneurons, the manipulation of prefrontal cortex interneurons has potential to...