We are delighted to announce that Cecile Ladouceur, PhD, has been appointed Tenured Associate Professor of Psychiatry by the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Ladouceur has developed a highly collaborative research program focused on investigating the development of neural systems underlying cognitive, emotional, and social processes in childhood and adolescence, with the goal of potentially informing novel...

It is widely known that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that pregnant women refrain from drinking alcohol due to the risk of potential adverse outcomes for offspring. However, alcohol use trajectories among adolescent and young adult mothers have been understudied, leaving gaps in our ability to effectively address this important public health issue. In general, adolescence and young...

Congratulations to Karen Matthews, PhD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Epidemiology, Psychology, and Clinical and Translational Science), who has received the 2020 American Psychosomatic Society Distinguished Scientist Award. The award recognizes outstanding lifetime contributions to psychosomatic medicine. Dr. Matthews’s research focuses on the psychosocial factors involved in the etiology of...

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

We are pleased to announce that Timothy Allen, PhD, has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Allen received his PhD in child clinical psychology from the University of Minnesota Institute of Child Development. He completed his clinical psychology internship at Northwestern University, followed by postdoctoral training at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (Toronto) and Penn State...

We are thrilled to announce that Frances Wang, PhD, has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Wang earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Arizona State University and completed her clinical internship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. She remained in Pittsburgh for postdoctoral training in the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA)-funded Developmental Alcohol...

Many Pitt Psychiatry scientists use postmortem human brain tissue to identify neural alterations associated with mental disorders to guide the development of novel treatments. They do so with confidence that a team of psychologists and psychiatrists have systematically validated the diagnoses of each donor subject. This lifespan review is an uniquely intensive version of a process known as the “psychological...

Please join us in congratulating Jack Rozel, MD, MSL (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Adjunct Professor of Law), who has been named 2020 Behavioral Healthcare Practitioner of the Year. An expert in emergency psychiatry and crisis intervention, Dr. Rozel is Medical Director, resolve Crisis Services, which provides mental health crisis intervention and stabilization through phone, mobile, walk-in and...

We are delighted to announce that Rachel Vaughn-Coaxum, PhD, has joined the faculty as Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. Dr. Vaughn-Coaxum earned her PhD in clinical psychology from Harvard University. She completed her clinical psychology internship at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, followed by the Department’s National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded Clinical Research Training for Psychologists T32...

Regular sleep is critical for both health and optimal brain functioning. Sleep deprivation affects several regions within the brain’s reward circuitry, including the nucleus accumbens, the reward processing hub, as well as connected regions such as the amygdala. Changes in these brain regions are involved in impulsivity and increased drive for rewarding stimuli (such as sweet food), common symptoms of sleep...