Please join us in congratulating Lauren Bylsma, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology), who has received the 2025 Outstanding Mid-Career Psychologist Contribution Award from the Association of Psychologists in Academic Health Centers (APAHC). The Outstanding Mid-Career Psychologists Contributions Award recognizes psychologists whose work in medical school and academic health care settings has...

The Services for Teens at Risk (STAR)-Center is a nationally recognized suicide prevention program that combines clinical and outreach services designed to combat the problem of child and adolescent suicide. The STAR-Center annual conference presents best practices in clinical care incorporated into practical guidelines, and this year addressed the theme Creating Partnerships for Just and Inclusive Schools. “The...

Please join us in congratulating Martin Lubetsky, MD; Christopher Martin, PhD; and Kenneth Perkins, PhD, who have transitioned to emeritus status in the Department of Psychiatry. Martin Lubetsky, MD (Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry) Dr. Lubetsky has served as an outstanding leader in the treatment of autism and developmental disorders since joining the Pitt Psychiatry faculty. He has been responsible for the...

Recent studies led by Carla Mazefsky, PhD (Nancy J. Minshew, MD Chair in Autism Research and Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Psychology), highlight current advances in autism research. Dr. Mazefsky is an expert in emotion regulation in autism, which had been previously understudied in autism research. She directs the Regulation of Emotion in Autistic Adults, Children, and Teens...

Congratulations to Ligia Antezana, PhD; Carolina Soares, PhD; and Lindsay Taraban, PhD, who received Best Poster Presentation Awards at the University of Pittsburgh Postdoctoral Association 2025 Postdoctoral Data & Dine Symposium. Dr. Antezana, Dr. Soares, and Dr. Taraban were counted among 11 total award recipients selected from 130 submissions. Dr. Antezana is a clinical psychologist who conducts research in the...

Social determinants of health are non-medical factors of daily life that influence health outcomes. A review of factors influencing cognitive impairment in older adults presented a range of community-level structural and social determinants of health, distinguished from individual risk and protective factors. Investigators led by Mary Ganguli, MD, MPH (Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, and Neurology), analyzed...

Congratulations to Sarah Pedersen, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Psychology), who has received the American Psychological Association Division 50 (Society of Addiction Psychology) Nancy Petry Mid-Career Award. The award was presented at the Collaborative Perspectives on Addiction (CPA) conference, which brings together Society of Addiction Psychology and American...

Intravenous ketamine produces reliable, fast-acting, and potent antidepressant effects even among individuals with treatment-resistant depression. Ketamine can also be a powerful experimental tool to provide a more precise evaluation of neurocognitive mechanisms underlying reduction in depression symptoms. Cognitive theorists of depression have long posited that systematic alterations in attentional bias (giving...

Please join us in congratulating Jatinder Babbar, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), and Nadeem Ahmed, MD (UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital Adult Services physician), who have received 2024 UPMC Award for Commitment to Excellence in Service (ACES). The prestigious ACES, received by less than 1% of UPMC staff annually, honors individuals who routinely go above and beyond. Dr. Babbar is medical director of the...

Among older adults who successfully achieve clinical remission from depression, 35%-45% will experience a new depressive episode within two years. The factors that contribute to the emergence of recurrent depressive episodes in older adults are not well understood. Psychological stress may play a role in depression remission and recurrence, yet important questions remain about the brain and physiological profiles...