News

We are pleased to announce that Nadine Melhem, PhD, has been promoted to Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

Dr. Melhem earned her PhD in psychiatric epidemiology from the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. She has dedicated her research career to improving our understanding of the risk for psychiatric disorders in children who have experienced trauma or prolonged grief, the familial and genetic contributors to suicide risk, and the contribution of alterations in the hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis to suicide risk. She brings new methods to examination of suicidal behavior in youth, including studies of hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis dysregulation, neuroinflammation, and of neural mitochondrial function. Her novel findings include showing that suicide attempters had a blunted hypothalamic-pituitary adrenal axis response to stress compared to other high-risk subjects. 

Dr. Melhem is principal investigator (PI) or multiple PI on five National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) R01 grants focused on stress response/suicidality in youth. In addition, she is MPI for the signature R01 of the NIMH Enhancing Triage and Utilization for Depression and Emergent Suicidality (ETUDES) Center of Excellence P50, as well as co-investigator (co-I) on the ETUDES administrative core. Her history of early-career funding includes leading a K01, three R-level grants from the NIMH, a NARSAD Young Investigator Award, and a NARSAD Independent Investigator Award.

Dr. Melhem has disseminated her research through original, peer-reviewed articles in top scientific journals, as well as through presentations at annual meetings in the US and abroad. She has been invited to present her research at the NIMH, the Society of Biological Psychiatry annual meeting, and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, as well as at the American University of Beirut, the International Academy of Suicide Research, and the World Psychiatric Association’s Epidemiology and Public Health Section. 

A highly respected scientist with an excellent national and international reputation, Dr. Melhem is a member of the National Institutes of Health Center for Scientific Review’s Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities study section, and serves on the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Research Grants Committee. She has served on invited review panels for organizations and institutions including the NIMH, Department of Defense Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, and the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command.

As a teacher, Dr. Melhem has made tremendous contributions to the educational mission of the Department of Psychiatry, as well as to schools and departments across the University of Pittsburgh. She has taught School of Public Health master’s and doctoral students on the epidemiology of mental disorders and served as a facilitator for medical students enrolled in Introduction to Psychiatry. She has additionally taught numerous psychiatry residents and postdoctoral scholars. Dr. Melhem is a highly sought after mentor, having worked with medical students, postdoctoral scholars, and early-career faculty. On the national level, she is currently a mentor with the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology.

“Dr. Melhem has a tremendous track record of innovative and influential research. She has employed novel methods in the examination of suicidal behavior in youth, which have yielded critical findings that impact clinical practice,” said David Lewis, MD (Chair, Department of Psychiatry). “She is an outstanding member of the scientific community, as well as an active, engaged, and highly effective teacher and mentor.”

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Melhem!