Congratulations to Barbara Baumann, PhD, and Oliver Lindhiem, PhD, whose projects have each been selected to receive Pitt Innovation Challenge (PInCh) Awards! The Pitt Innovation Challenge competition is supported by the Clinical and Translational Science Institute and is designed to generate innovative solutions to challenging health problems by mitigating risk and providing financial and administrative support to...

Last week we reinvented our annual in-person Research Day as a virtual Research Matinee, a Department-wide exploration of innovative research, career reflections and honors for outstanding faculty and staff. Attendees included nearly 200 Psychiatry faculty, trainees, and staff, who tuned in for plenary speaker Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab), followed by the perennially popular Speed Dat(a)ing, in which six...

Congratulations to LalithKumar K. Solai, MD , who has received the 2020 Distinguished Academician Award from the Indo-American Psychiatric Association (IAPA). The award is given annually to an IAPA life member who has made noteworthy academic contributions to the mental health field through research, teaching, and administrative activities. “I am honored and humbled to receive this award. It has been my pleasure to...

Over the last eight months, the COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the challenges associated with complex or harmful family interactions that can occur as many people spend more time at home, often with decreased access to community supports and services. The Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network (funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration), in collaboration with the National...

We are delighted to announce that Rebecca Thurston, PhD, has been appointed Tenured Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, Epidemiology and Psychology by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Thurston is a widely recognized expert in the field of mid- and late-life women’s mental and cardiovascular health. Her research has generated critical findings that substantially enhanced or changed our...

How can a better understanding of heightened attention bias to threat help the development of interventions to treat anxiety? In general, individuals with anxiety disorders give greater initial attention to perceived threats, with some maintaining negative attention bias during sustained exposure to threatening stimuli. These temporal stages of attention bias may exert unique influences on anxious vigilance...

We are delighted to welcome the newest members of our highly competitive Clinical Psychology Internship program! Tina Goldstein, PhD, and Michele Levine, PhD, co-lead the program, which is accredited by the American Psychological Association. The yearlong experience adheres to a clinical science model of training and professional development, emphasizing research and clinical training integration, as well as a...

We are thrilled to announce that Tina Goldstein, PhD, has been appointed Tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Goldstein has long dedicated herself to research on youth with bipolar disorder and suicidality. She is an expert in dialectical behavior therapy (DBT) and published the first study to show improvements in youth suicidality with this treatment. Her current research...

Every fall, Department of Psychiatry faculty, trainees, and staff look forward to the Mindscapes art exhibition. Usually held at a Pittsburgh arts space, Mindscapes is an annual event featuring art pertaining to mental illness, created by both scientists and those living with mental illness, expressively exploring both the lived experience and scientific research. This year, Mindscapes is happening online (through...

The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce the promotion of Leonardo D’Aiuto, PhD, to Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. D’Aiuto’s area of expertise is neurotropic viruses, focusing on novel approaches for the generation of three-dimensional neuronal cultures from human-induced pluripotent stem cells to as a model system for exploring the relationship between central nervous system neurotropic...