We are pleased to announce that Loren Sobel, MD, MS has won a Candidates’ Council Psychoanalytic Paper Prize, a prestigious national award given by the American Psychoanalytic Association (APsaA). Dr. Sobel is a UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) resident graduate, as well as a graduate of the Pittsburgh Psychoanalytic Center training program in psychoanalysis. He is a member of the volunteer faculty at WPH...

The Department of Psychiatry is delighted to announce that Caitlin Conner, PhD, Lisa Mengwall-Weinstock, MD, and Maggie Whelan, MD, PhD, have joined our faculty. Caitlin Conner, PhD After completing a clinical internship at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Dr. Conner earned her PhD in clinical science from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 2017. She then joined the University of...

Working memory, the ability to maintain a limited amount of information “in mind” to guide everyday thoughts and behaviors, is a core cognitive process. Its function depends on activity in a network of brain areas distributed across the cerebral cortex. Each of these areas display different patterns of activity while information is being maintained. These differences are correlated with, and might depend on...

On October 10, 2019, Pitt Psychiatry clinician-educator faculty and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH) trainees and staff filled the WPH meeting rooms, classrooms and auditorium for the Clinician Educator Showcase. The Showcase, now in its eighth year, is an annual opportunity to learn in-depth about promising clinical innovations and the latest quality improvement initiatives. The day also provides ample time...

Pictured above: Drs. Priyanka Amin, Thersilla Oberbarnscheidt, Shelly Kucherer, Dan Bender and Ran Li. The Department of Psychiatry extends a warm welcome to the physicians below, who join our clinician-educator faculty at the rank of assistant professor. Priyanka Amin, MD Dr. Amin earned her MD from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Following her graduation from medical school, she joined Western...

Congratulations to Rebecca Thurston, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, Epidemiology and Psychology, who has been named 2019–2020 President, North American Menopause Society. “It is a privilege to lead this fantastic organization devoted to the study and care of midlife women,” said Dr. Thurston. Dr. Thurston is an expert in the field of mid- and late-life women’s mental and...

On Friday, October 4, 2019, scientists, students, art lovers and others interested in the intersection of art and science gathered at Imagebox in Pittsburgh for the third annual Mindscapes exhibition. Mindscapes PGH promotes community awareness of mental illness and fundraises for local organizations that provide mental health care. The event gives artists and scientists the opportunity to display art pertaining to...

The Psychiatry Research Pathway (PRP) Symposium provides UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital residents engaged in research the opportunity to deliver formal presentations to an audience of fellow residents, faculty mentors and directors of T32 postdoctoral research programs. The program comprised a 20-minute talk from each resident on their current research, followed by insightful feedback and energetic discussion...

“It’s not like I don’t have problems anymore, but it’s manageable with my support system. There will be setbacks, but you have to trust the process.” A young adult living with bipolar disorder opened the third Child and Adolescent Bipolar Spectrum Services (CABS) Conference, speaking to a diverse group of behavioral health professionals, as well as patients and their families, assembled to learn about early...

Children of parents with depression, when compared with their peers, are at increased risk to experience depression or other psychiatric illnesses. However, the neural mechanisms that contribute to the development of psychiatric illness in the offspring of affected parents is not well understood. Existing research has demonstrated that children at high risk for depression, compared with their peers, have...