We are delighted to announce that Andrea Goldschmidt, PhD, has received conferral of tenure at the rank of associate professor by the University of Pittsburgh. An expert in eating disorders and obesity research, Dr. Goldschmidt focuses on understanding eating behaviors that predict adverse weight-related outcomes, particularly in children and adolescents with elevated weight status. Among Dr. Goldschmidt’s key...

We are delighted to announce that Kymberly Young, PhD, has received conferral of tenure at the rank of associate professor by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Young is an expert in the neural mechanisms of depression, and her work focuses on altered autobiographical memory in the illness, the translation of mechanistic findings from those findings to neurofeedback strategies, and the development of scalable, cost...

The Department of Psychiatry is pleased to announce that two faculty members, Beatriz Luna, PhD, and Mary Phillips, MD, MD (Cantab), have been elected to membership of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to...

Please join us in congratulating Abigail Schlesinger, MD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics), Charles Kahn, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), and Elizabeth Kistler, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), who have received 2024 UPMC Physician Excellence Awards. Honorees will be celebrated during the Dr. Loren Roth Quality and Patient Safety Awards later this month. Dr. Schlesinger received a...

The Department of Psychiatry has established a Center for Neural Circuit-Based Technology Interventions in Psychiatry (CNCTI-P), which will be led by Mary Phillips, MD, MD (CANTAB) (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Bioengineering, and Pittsburgh Foundation-Emmerling Endowed Chair in Psychotic Disorders). Dr. Phillips is an international leader in affective neuroscience...

Poor sleep is prevalent in adolescents with bipolar disorder, precedes illness onset, and is associated with worse mood symptoms. Furthermore, adolescents with bipolar disorder are at a heightened risk for suicidal behavior. Because many risk factors for suicidal behavior (e.g., prior history of trauma, family history of bipolar disorder) are not modifiable, it is critical to identify novel risk factors for bipolar...

Pitt Psychiatry extends a warm welcome to two new faculty members: Varad Deshmukh, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry) Dr. Deshmukh received his MD from the University of Queensland School of Medicine – Ochsner Clinical School (Australia). At Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, he completed residency training in psychiatry, serving as chief resident of the adult psychiatry residency training...

People who survive suicide attempts usually come to regret their choice of suicide attempt over constructive alternatives, suggesting that this choice is often an error of decision-making. In a crisis, decisions are often made during a complex sensorimotor interaction, with real or perceived time pressure, and a vast number of options that may become available and vanish dynamically. While there may be many choices...

Most studies examining dopaminergic modulation of metabolism have focused on D 2-like receptors (D 2, D 3, and D 4 receptors) in brain regions associated with metabolic regulation, including striatum and hypothalamus, where D 2 and D 3 receptors mediate appetite, feeding, and central glucose sensing. However, dopamine D 2-like receptors in both the central nervous system and the periphery are key modulators of...

Congratulations to Morgan Faeder, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology), who has received an Association for Academic Psychiatry Early Career Development Award, which recognizes the achievements and academic promise early-career faculty in psychiatry. Dr. Faeder is an attending psychiatrist with UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH)’s consultation-liaison service, providing clinical care for...