Alexis Fertig, MD is an accomplished clinician and national expert in the area of eating disorders. She provides high-quality clinical care within the intensive outpatient, inpatient, and partial hospitalization eating disorders programs at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic. She is director of the UPMC Center for Eating Disorders and is the “go to“ person for difficult consults and complex cases. Dr. Fertig...

Chronic dysfunction in social relationships is a core feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD), and limited research exists regarding the social networks among individuals with the disorder. Examining differences in social integration, social support, and relationship characteristics in social networks may be critical to understanding the character and costs of social difficulties experienced by these...

The Department of Psychiatry is now accepting abstracts for consideration for poster presentations for its 18th Annual Research Day. If you would like to submit an abstract, click here to access the Call for Abstracts and Abstract Submission Form. The deadline for submission is April 6, 2018. Research Day will take place on Thursday, June 7, 2018 at the University Club on the Oakland campus. This full-day event is...

Carmen Andreescu, MD is an internationally recognized expert on the affective neuroscience of late-life mood and anxiety disorders. Her study of the functional and structural neural circuity of emotion dysregulation in generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) led her pursue a novel set of hypotheses regarding severe worry as a central feature and organizing concept in research on the neurobiology of GAD. The development...

Jordan F. Karp, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, has been selected as the 2018 Geriatrics Teacher of the Year by the Pennsylvania Geriatrics Society (Western Division). The award recognizes exceptional geriatrics teachers for their dedication and commitment to geriatrics teaching excellence. Charles F. (Chip) Reynolds, III, MD, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry, and Lalith K. Solai, MD, Associate Professor of...

Depression is associated with disturbances to sleep and the 24-hour sleep-wake pattern, or rest-activity rhythm (RAR). However, there remains a need to identify the specific sleep/RAR correlates of depression symptom severity in population subgroups, such as strained dementia caregivers, who are at elevated risk for major depressive disorder. In a five-year study led by Dr. Smagula’s mentor, Martica Hall, PhD...

Mary Torregrossa, PhD focuses her research on examining the factors that can lead to vulnerability to drug addiction and relapse. Using animal models to understand how drugs of abuse co-opt learning and memory systems, she seeks to identify interventions that target these underlying neurobiologic substrates in an effort to reduce substance use and relapse. Combining behavioral, molecular, and sophisticated self...

Maria Jalbrzikowski, PhD has been recognized as a Rising Star by the Association for Psychological Science (APS) for her innovative research. This designation is presented to outstanding psychological scientists in the earliest stages of their research careers post-PhD and whose innovative work has already advanced the field and signals great potential for their continued contributions. The APS Board of Directors...

One of the most significant contributions to the field by Department of Psychiatry investigators is the development and testing of diagnostic tools for research and clinical practice. Assessment of children and adolescents can present unique challenges. For example, mood symptoms are more challenging to evaluate in children than in adults. In 1978 the late Joachim Puig-Antich, MD, a distinguished researcher and...

Findings of long-term substance use risk for children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are generally inconsistent. This observational follow-up of the Multimodal Treatment Study of Children with ADHD (MTA) provided an opportunity to assess long-term outcomes in a large, diverse, carefully diagnosed sample. The multi-site study led by Brooke Molina, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry...