Vishwajit Nimgaonkar, MD, PhD, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Genetics and Director, Program for Genetics and Psychosis, has dedicated the greater part of his career—spanning 25 years—to improving global mental health. Addressing the increasing global burden of mental illness and substance use disorders, he has collaborated with colleagues from Pittsburgh to Delhi, Mansoura, Cairo, and Hyderabad. Dr. Nimgaonkar...

The Department of Psychiatry is mourning the recent passing of Jeffrey Yao, PhD, an esteemed member of our faculty and an international expert in the field of psychopharmacology. Dr. Yao was a Senior Research Career Scientist at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System (VAPHS) where he also directed the Neurochemistry and Psychopharmacology Laboratory for over 30 years, and was a Research Professor of Psychiatry and...

Oliver Lindhiem, PhD is an accomplished clinical scientist in the area of parenting-based interventions to prevent and treat childhood disruptive behavior disorders. He has developed several tools that enable clinicians to diagnose disorders more accurately and to determine whether children and parents have successfully learned skills taught in treatment and use them in daily life. His innovative ideas challenge a...

Mark Your Calendars! Don't forget to mark your calendars and join us on October 11, 2018 when the Department of Psychiatry and Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic (WPIC) host the Seventh Annual Clinician Educator Showcase. This half-day event has become an important venue for highlighting clinical innovations implemented by our faculty and staff and for sharing information and strategies on career development...

Registration is now open for the annual Services for Teens at Risk (STAR-Center) Conference, which will take place May 4, 2018 from 8:30 am to 3:30 pm at the William Pitt Union on the University of Pittsburgh Oakland campus. Registration is from 8 to 8:30 am. "Modern Times: Assessing, Supporting, and Engaging Youth at Risk for Suicide in a Digital Era" is this year’s conference theme. STAR-Center Director David...

The Department is pleased to announce results of the 2018 Residency Match for the General Psychiatry, Child, Triple Board, and Family Medicine/Psychiatry tracks. The new class of PGY1 residents was announced and celebrated at the Resident and Fellow Spring Gathering held March 16. We thank everyone who contributed during the recruitment season. General Psychiatry Patrick Buckley - University of Virginia School of...

Yanhua Huang, PhD has focused her research on neural plasticity within the reward circuitry of the brain. She studies molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying drug abuse and addiction and sleep-mediated regulation of reward-elicited behaviors. By studying neural plasticity in rodent models, she is working to characterize pathway-specific changes in the reward circuitry of the brain following sleep disturbances...

Most studies use individual sleep characteristics to predict health outcomes. However, a recent paradigmatic shift in sleep research has led investigators to study sleep through a “sleep health” framework. Within this framework, sleep is viewed as a multidimensional pattern of sleep-wakefulness that promotes physical and mental well-being and is characterized along multiple domains including duration, continuity...

The Department’s wide variety of federally sponsored postdoctoral research training programs (T32s) offer extensive support to help trainees optimize their ability to launch and sustain a research career in psychiatry. These trainees immerse themselves in a particular area of research for a two- to three-year period of protected time prior to obtaining a K Award and entering residency. Areas of research training...

Dean F. Salisbury, PhD has conducted his extensive research career studying the pathology and pathophysiology in early psychosis—a field in which he is an international expert—with one ultimate goal in mind: early identification of the disorder. His research delves into understanding the basic dysfunctions that will lead to earlier identification, better interventions, and improved outcome in schizophrenia and...