The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has awarded Pitt Psychiatry a Center of Excellence (P50) grant renewal for the Center for Adolescent Reward, Rhythms and Sleep (CARRS), led by Colleen McClung, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry and Clinical and Translational Science), and Daniel Buysse, MD (UPMC Endowed Chair in Sleep Medicine and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and...

Life stressors are known risk factors for suicide, but the specific stressor types that most strongly precipitate suicidal outcomes, and on what timescale, remain poorly understood. Social rejection may be an especially potent interpersonal stressor because it threatens to interrupt the maintenance of social bonds and stimulates a cascade of affective, cognitive, and biological changes that promote depression and...

Schizophrenia is frequently associated with functional impairments including deficits in cognition and social interactions. These impairments are thought to emerge from dysfunction in the processing of information across distributed cortical circuits, including the primary visual cortex, the posterior parietal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Communication across these regions relies on excitatory...

The annual Pittsburgh Schizophrenia Conference, now in its 42nd year, presents the latest clinical and research findings to an audience of psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, psychologists, service coordinators, researchers, and mental health policy administrators, as well as to patients and families. The program additionally includes artwork and music created and performed by individuals receiving treatment for...

Congratulations to Ann Cohen, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), who has been elected to the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA) National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) Steering Committee for a three-year term. The NACC serves as the centralized data repository, collaboration, and communication hub for the NIA’s Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers (ADRC) Program. At the University of Pittsburgh, Dr...

Congratulations to Nermin Toukhy, PhD (postdoctoral associate), who has received an International Academy of Suicide Research (IASR) Early Career Research Award for the biological studies of suicide. Dr. Toukhy earned her PhD in psychology from Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Under the mentorship of David Brent, MD (Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies and Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and...

Pitt Psychiatry investigators have recently published research studies on mental health in late life in Alzheimer’s & Dementia, Nature Communications, and Neuropsychopharmacology. Below is a summary of original research on amyloid beta accumulation, neuroinflammation, neurodegeneration, and severe worry in older adults. Periventricular Diffusivity Reflects APOE Ε4-Modulated Amyloid Accumulation and Cognitive...

Emotion dysregulation, characterized by an individual’s challenges in monitoring and modifying emotional reactivity, is more likely to occur among autistic people than among non-autistic people. Emotion dysregulation is associated with multiple forms of mental health difficulties such as depression, anxiety, and aggression in autism. In addition, emotion dysregulation in autism has been associated with the need for...

Tina Goldstein, PhD (Pittsburgh Foundation Endowed Professor in Psychiatry Research, and Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Professor of Psychology), and Michele Levine, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry, Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences, and Psychology), co-directed the Department of Psychiatry’s Clinical Psychology Internship Program for more than 10 years. In 2025, Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Levine...

The annual meeting of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP), held in October 2025 highlighted and honored the innovative clinical and research achievements of Pitt Psychiatry faculty and trainees. Clinical Perspectives In a Clinical Perspectives session, “The Music I Want to Hear: A Journey Through Research,” David Brent, MD (Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies and Distinguished Professor of...