More than 20 members of the Department of Psychiatry faculty conduct a wide range of research pertaining to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and other psychotic disorders. Recent Pitt Psychiatry studies in Neuropsychopharmacology and Psychological Medicine present new findings pertaining to clinical high risk for psychosis and first-episode psychosis. Reduced GABA/glutamate in the thalamus of individuals at...

We are delighted to announce that Gina Perez, MD, has been promoted to Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Perez is Associate Chief, Behavioral Health Network and Telepsychiatry. As associate chief, she oversees the behavioral health services at UPMC’s 40 network hospitals and community affiliates, which comprise approximately 200 acute psychiatric beds. A...

Congratulations to Antoine Douaihy, MD (Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine); Neeta Shenai, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Daniel Bender, DO (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Morgan Faeder, MD, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology); and Kristen Eckstrand, MD, PhD (postdoctoral scholar), who have been honored for excellence in education at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine...

“A common approach to health disparities research is to take a sample of Black women, and a sample of white women, and compare them,” said Alison Hipwell, PhD, of a recent National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute-funded R01 focused on the association between perinatal stress and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in Black women, which she co-leads with Michele Levine, PhD. “But the current crisis in maternal health and...

We are thrilled to announce that Rebecca Price, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry), has received a 2021 Chancellor’s Distinguished Research Award. The award is in the Junior Scholar category, which honors Dr. Price’s great potential by virtue of her high-quality, early-career research contributions, as well as recognition of her national and international prominence as a scholar. Dr. Price’s research focuses...

Psychiatry residents at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital have the opportunity to serve their communities through elective outpatient clinic rotations in the Pittsburgh area. The Birmingham Free Care Clinic provides primary and acute medical care and other services for patients without health insurance. We spoke with Camille Tastenhoye, MD (PGY3), Daniel Salahuddin, MD, MPH (PGY4), and Jamie Farquhar, MD (PGY3)...

Pitt Psychiatry investigators including Amy Byrd, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), Vera Vine, PhD (postdoctoral fellow), Joseph Beeney, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), Lori Scott, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), J. Richard Jennings, PhD (Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science), and Stephanie Stepp, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and...

We are exceedingly fortunate that Jeannette South-Paul, MD (Professor and Chair Emeritus, Family Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine), will join us as the plenary speaker for the Department of Psychiatry Clinician Educator Showcase on March 25, 2021. As Chair of the Department of Family Medicine, Dr. South-Paul oversaw the educational, research, and clinical activities of the undergraduate and...

Paula Marie Powe, MD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), a child and adolescent psychiatrist, is medical director of the Matilda H. Theiss Child Development Center in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Dr. Powe’s clinical interests focus on trauma prevention and treatment in early childhood. At the Theiss Center she works with children who are at risk for behavioral and emotional issues and their families. Dr. Powe...

In a recent study published in Nature Communications, a team of scientists asked, When making decisions, how does one decide whether to exploit known good options or explore potentially better alternatives? While scientists have previously worked to uncover how the brain arbitrates between exploration and exploitation using experiments with one or two options, natural environments present a multitude of choices. In...