Psychiatry Advances

Neil P. Jones Ph.D. is an expert on the spectrum of Depressions, including their diverse manifestations and impact on cognitive-behavioral processes, for example accompanying rumination, stress-related anxiety, and anhedonia. This podcast focuses on subtypes of depression relating to brain pathways.

Dr. Danella Hafeman MD, PHD is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the Principal Investigator of a NIMH Sponsored Clinical Trial titled “Neurobehavior Targets of Mindfulness in Youth at Risk for Mood-Disorders.” This podcast focuses on research methodology, manifestations, instruction and mindfulness interventions to reduce stress and mood lability among at risk middle school youth, thereby affecting key brain connectivity related to potential Bi-Polar outcomes among youth at risk.

Rebecca Thurston PhD. is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is a National/International authority on Menopause. This Podcast describes her groundbreaking and continuing research (25 years) on Menopause. This episode includes its manifestations, women's experience, and impact on physical and mental health. We also discuss menopause's effects on the mind, heart, and brain, and diverse interventions if clinically indicated.

A cancer diagnosis and treatment can be difficult on both patients and their families emotionally. But support is available for people who need it. In this podcast, Robin Valpey, MD, medical director, Center for Counseling and Support, UPMC Hillman Cancer Center, and Elizabeth Hale, MD, clinical assistant professor, Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, discuss the mental health care available for cancer patients and their loved ones from the beginning of treatment onward. They also discuss the role of psychiatrists in the comprehensive cancer care that UPMC provides.

This Podcast describes integrated care at UPMC/PITT between the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology. Psychiatric manifestations/treatment of Huntington's disease, Parkinson's Disease, Epilepsy, and Migraine are discussed with Morgan Faeder MD, PHD. Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Medical Director of Neuropsychiatry and Director of the Consultation- Liaison Psychiatry Fellowship, and Alex Israel MD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychiatrist /UPMC Epilepsy and Headache Centers.

The University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry is involved in efforts to promote and implement Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI). In this podcast, four faculty members offer brief presentations and discuss the importance of DEI. Guests include Sarah Pederson, PhD; Paul Pikonis, PhD; Piper Carroll, MD; and César Escobar-Viera, MD, PhD. They discuss linking the Department of Psychiatry to the Pittsburgh community; the psychiatry residency training curriculum; departmental surveys; and LGBTQ+ health matters.

Oliver Lindhiem PHD, Associate Professor/Psychiatry/Pediatrics is an expert in childhood diagnosis of behavioral disorders. This Podcast focuses on ADHD-Hyperactive Presentation. This diagnosis, its usual treatment (medication), has for many years been controversial. Thereby highly precise measurement is much needed here. This requires research to prove the value of mobile sensing using a wristband aid. This Podcast also discusses business development of this needed device for potential wide distribution.

Coleen McClung  PHD is a nationally known researcher of Circadian Rhythms. She is funded by the NIMIH/NIDA/prominent Research Foundations. This Podcast focuses on these rhythms, present in all body/animal cells including humans. They are essential for life. Such rhythms may be altered in psychiatric disorders, e.g. Bi-Polar disorder, or other serious bodily diseases such as Cancer. These rhythms, natural and disordered, offer new approaches for effective treatment. Each of these issues is discussed.

Professor Bea Luna PHD is a nationally highly acclaimed NIMH- Funded psychologist, neuroscientist, teacher/mentor. Using multimodal brain imaging/learning methods she has pioneered in studying normal and atypical adolescent brain development from initiation to the onset of adulthood. These fascinating brain developments affected by adolescent experiences further prepare the brain for adult functioning. Adolescent risk-taking and other affects/brain development are explored in this Podcast.

Dr. Natacha De Genna PHD  is an Assistant Professor with longstanding acclaimed work relating to marijuana and nicotine use by pregnant mothers, how young age and mental health and discrimination may affect both mothers and their children post pregnancy. Her video “Mothers and Marijuana” is featured on the NIH Web Site. Like alcohol, paired maternal use of both nicotine and marijuana can be especially toxic. Her work on both large and smaller data sets has clinical implications.

Khaled Moussawi MD, PHD, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, is an experienced clinical neurologist and neuroscientist. This Podcast summarizes his research team's efforts to identify and translate pre-clinical neurobiological findings into actionable clinical treatment protocols for alcohol and potentially other addictions. Deep Brain Stimulation, DBS, now approved treatment of Parkinson's disease, holds such promise for patients with chronic severe alcohol use disorders.

Judith Morgan PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry. She observes mother-young child social interactions at play while simultaneously recording the brain cortical rhythms of each. Behaviors and neural responses of children at high risk for depression (their mothers are depressed) are compared with those of non-depressed mothers. This research gives rich information/prediction about behaviors, early child brain development-later emotional states, how maternal depression may impact upon the child brain.

Kymberly Young PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. She is an expert in brain science. Her 2017 article in the AJP, “Randomized Clinical Trial of Real-Time fMRI Amygdala Neurofeedback for Major Depressive Disorder: Effects on Symptoms and Autobiographical Memory Recall” is gaining attention. This Podcast focuses on the amygdala, how therapeutically it can be brought “online” in the brain through calibrated patient self-efforts related to their memories.

Fabio Ferrarelli MD PHD, Director of the Sleep and Schizophrenia Program is Associate Professor of Psychiatry in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. His research focusses on how sleep spindles and slow waves differ among patients with chronic schizophrenia and/or acute psychosis relative to healthy individuals. These sleep-specific oscillatory activities may represent potential biomarkers and/or endophenotypes for schizophrenia and related psychotic disorders.

Rebecca Price PhD is Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Psychology at the University of Pittsburgh. Her innovative integrated research on brain plasticity coupled with computer based cognitive therapy has gained much visibility in the psychiatric literature and at Pitt where she has recently received the Chancellors Distinguished Research Award. This Podcast discusses her research work and methodology as this relates to Ketamine infusion for refractory depression and TBS, Transcranial Brain Stimulation in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Antoine Douaihy M.D. is Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine. He is a recognized expert in motivational interviewing. Joining him is his intern in clinical Psychology, Cassie Boness MS. Vaccine hesitancy threatens nationally needed Covid herd immunity. Motivational interviewing is a  very useful approach for enlisting reluctant persons in self-change. Discussed here are the parameters and techniques of motivational interviewing as this applies to Covid-19 vaccine hesitancy. 

Sarah L. Pederson PhD is Associate Professor of Psychiatry. She is a national authority on alcohol use and its more serious social/psychological problems. Her research work is remarkable for its multi-causal personal assessments, racial and otherwise, e.g. measurements of impulsivity and other personal characteristics associated with drinking both in the laboratory and in vivo in the community. This Podcast also considers the effects of Covid-19, pre and now, upon drinking.

Marta Pecina MD PhD. is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, Director of the Translational Neuroscience and Neuroimaging Lab of the Department of Psychiatry and the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. This Podcast focuses on the Neurobiological basis of placebo effects. Placebos have great power. We explain how both expectation and conditioning generate strong placebo effects relevant to research and their therapeutic use. Ethical issues about placebo use are furthermore addressed.

Dr. Deepak Sarpal is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry/Medical Director of Services for Treatment of Early Psychosis at WPH. This Podcast focuses upon Clozapine, a very valuable but underused treatment for refractory schizophrenia, also brain science involving functional imaging associated with patient improvement on anti-psychotic drugs. Findings include brain pre-frontal cortex connectivity and synchronization of function with brain striatum, limbic system structures, Globus Pallidus.

Dr. Lalith Kumar K. Solai is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Pitt. He is the Architect/Director of the WPH Center for Interventional Psychiatry. It provides newer treatment modalities in psychiatry, especially for depressed patients refractory to conventional treatments, thus advancing new knowledge about these interventional treatments. This Podcast discusses newer developments in ECT, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) , Ketamine and Ketamine Infusion, Direct Brain Stimulation (DBS).

Dr. Kristine Wilckens PhD is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and sleep researcher. She has a K01 Career Development Award from the NIH. It concerns Slow Wave Sleep and  Executive Network Function in older adults. This Podcast reviews the stages of sleep focusing upon slow wave sleep, the deepest most restorative sleep pattern and its effect upon cognition, in essence brain health. Sleep moderates the relationship between amyloid beta and memory recall.

Sansea Jacobson, MD, is an associate psychiatry professor at the University of Pittsburgh, and director, UPMC Graduate Medical Education WELL Committee. More than 1,700 residents and fellows are in training at UPMC. This podcast discusses physician wellbeing both prior to and during COVID-19, including support systems and individual challenges. Despite the difficulties, COVID-19 empowers doctors to do what they have been trained to do, thereby reinforcing positive identities.

Dr. Bruce Rollman is the UPMC Endowed Chair in General Internal Medicine and Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Biomedical Informatics at the University of Pittsburgh. This Podcast describes his highly influential two decades of research in depression and cardiovascular care, including the “Hopeful Heart Trial”, his most recent NIH-funded study that examined the impact of a “blended” collaborative care strategy for treating both heart failure and co-morbid depression.

Roy Chengappa, MD, is professor of psychiatry and medical director/chief of Comprehensive Recovery Services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. This service includes care for 5,000 to 10,000 serious, chronically mentally ill patients. Kimberly Clinebell, MD, is major clinician at the Pathways, a long-term structural residence and locked community setting. This podcast describes continuing treatment of these patients given the necessity of social distancing and isolation. This includes continuing clozapine and injection treatments.

Jack Rozel, MD, is associate professor of psychiatry and medical director at resolve Crisis Services. He is president of the American Association for Emergency Psychiatry. This podcast addresses the pandemic functioning of an established, multi-purpose, and community-based crisis center. Crises are not defined by the patient or family having a psychiatric disorder. The center has dealt with challenges associated with the pandemic. This podcast also addresses the role of national helplines during COVID-19. Follow Dr. Rozel on Twitter at @ViolenceWonks

Dr. Jody Glance is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry/Medical Director of Addiction Services/ in-hospital and community. Providing a range of services for patients with addiction to substances has never been easy.  This Podcast summarizes how, under Dr. Glance’ s leadership, treatment for patients continues despite difficulties.  Changes in regulations, “new staff learning” has permitted “detox at a distance”, protecting patients from COVID risk, modifications of med. Rx, changed group treatment approaches.

Dr. Paula Marie Powe is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry/Medical Director of Theiss Early Childhood and School-Based Behavioral Center. Her work involves analysis and intervention in infants 0-3 years old exposed to stress. potentially toxic stress. This type stress impacts later mental and physical health. Poor outcomes are not inevitable. Adaptive support enhances infant and child resilience. Programmatic interventions e.g. “parent-child interaction therapy”  are reviewed and highlighted.

Gina Perez is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. She is Associate Chief /Behavioral Health Network and Telepsychiatry for UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. This Podcast, 2nd in this Pandemic Series, describes the considerable expansion and implications for the future of telepsychiatry in treating psychiatric patients. Not only in out-patient settings but widely so. Post pandemic it is very likely that most of these changes will persist, thereby altering psychiatric medical care broadly.

Ken Nash MD is Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh.  He is Chief Clinical Services at Western Psychiatry Hospital. This initial Podcast is the first of Five Podcasts relating to the ongoing Covid-19 Pandemic. It concerns Leadership for Change during the Pandemic to assure continuing treatment access for the Hospital’s in- patients/ambulatory settings. Similar in purpose, four other Pandemic relevant podcasts will follow/weekly on Fridays. For example, next Friday we present Telepsychiatry.  

Dr. Priya Gopalan is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh/UPMC. She directs system-wide consultations-liaison services. These provide in-person and telemedicine consultations for in-patients. This Podcast describes building such services that are inter-professional, involve teaching a large number of faculty, residents/fellows/medical students. Key problems addressed include prevention/delirium/multi-causal catatonia/ perinatal problems e.g. depression and substance abuse.

Boris Birmaher MD. is Endowed Chair- Early Onset Bipolar Disease/Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. This Podcast addresses two research questions: 1) Who among Children and Adolescents are at Risk to develop Bipolar Spectrum Disorder: 2) among patients who develop this disorder who is at risk for recurrence? This is a controlled prospective twenty year duration research study of children at higher risk because  at least one of their parents has this disorder.

Shaun Eack PhD is the James and Noel Browne Endowed Chair and Professor in Social Work and Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh. This Podcast describes his work on Cognitive Enhancement Therapy for persons with Schizophrenia and Autism. This work is a neurocognitive and social-cognitive rehabilitation program. Dr. Eack is presently preparing his positive research findings for application in community settings.

Judy Cameron PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry. This podcast describes ongoing leading public education, intervention and training programs derived from her previous extensive experimental neuroscience research in primate brain development. 

Peter Franzen PhD. Is Associate Director for Education of the University of Pittsburgh Sleep and Chronobiology Center. This Podcast discusses teenagers shortened sleep during critical high school years, when teenagers must attend school at early times. These sleep changes affect teenager reactivity, emotion, stress, pleasure( anhedonia) cognition and substance use. Consequent to sleep research findings this Podcast also discusses controversial school based interventions to prevent negative outcomes.

Dr. Jamie Tew is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry.  This Podcast describes his personal evolution from being a full-time clinical educator into his becoming a lead clinician administer at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. Presently he is Associate Chief of Clinical Services for Inpatient care, Quality, and Director of WPH’s Clinician Educator Faculty Development Program.  This Podcast is especially pertinent for early  Academic clinical faculty during subsequent periods of their growth and change.

Brant P. Hasler,  PhD, is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology. He is the PI of multiple  NH research grants. These investigate changing adolescent sleep patterns, late bedtimes, early arising and consequent increased risk for substance abuse. Dr. Hasler is both a researcher and a clinician/mentor. Dr. Hasler’s “three-phase”  research investigations involve home/school physiological monitoring, sleep studies as well as clinical interventions to change these patterns.

Dennis Daley PhD is Professor of Psychiatry and former Chief Addiction Medicine Services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. For more than 30 years Dr. Daley provided clinical services to persons with SUDs. His teaching and recovery materials are used throughout the US. This Podcast emphasizes that families of persons with SUDs are harmed and in need of psychological assistance because of their loved one’s serious problems. Family assistance strongly  promotes and retains SUD patients in treatment.

Our Guest , Abigail Schlesinger MD. is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry. She is the Chief , Behavioral Science Division. UPMC Children’s Hospital, also the Medical Director of TiPS (Telephonic Psychiatric Services). These expanding ambulatory integrated services are proximately provided within multi-group Pediatrician’s offices,  presently,  with TiPS,  including  27 Pa. counties. Dr Schlesinger has devoted her career to improving how we talk to patients, assist other physicians and patients’  families.

“Resolve” is a governmentally funded free-standing, multi-purpose Crisis Center serving all persons in Allegheny County – The Center clients include the mentally ill and any persons/families under great stress - whatever their pressing concerns.  My guest is Associate Professor of Psychiatry Jack Rozel MD, President, American Association for Emergency Psychiatry. Dr. Rozel is an expert on gun violence and the Medical Director for “Resolve”.

Maintaining the mental health of perinatal women is of great importance personally and for all of use. In this episode, we speak with Eydie Moses-Kolko, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and  expert in women’s health and perinatal psychiatry. The rationale and approach of partial outpatient intensive treatment for such women is reviewed along with other integrated treatment approaches. Also discussed are core principles of collaboration in program planning.

Gina Perez, MD, is the Associate Chief of the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital Behavioral Network. This includes Telepsychiatry not only for UPMC sites, but also for mental and behavioral health centers throughout Western PA including especially rural areas (16 locations/11 counties). This podcast episode focuses on this rapidly growing treatment modality, not only for individual treatment and evaluation, but also for psychiatric in-patient units and over time emergency rooms. Care standards are being delineated.

Eva Szigethy, MD/PHD is Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. She is the Director of Behavioral Health within the Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) Medical Home. Dr. Szigethy focuses her clinical and research interests on integrated medical-psychiatric care models for patients with chronic disease including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). She is the PI of a PCORI grant on the specialty medical home, a likely future model of patient care.

Antoine Douaihy, MD, is professor of Psychiatry and Medicine and senior academic director of Addiction Medical Services at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. Medical marijuana is now approved for distribution in Pennsylvania, but it’s absent of controlled clinical trials. Marijuana use requires careful monitoring, including marijuana growing, physician recommendations, and distribution. This episode explores controversies about today’s prescription of medical marijuana.

Jordan Karp, MD, is professor of Psychiatry, Anesthesiology, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. Late-life depression may be brain “toxic.” This episode discusses geriatric depression and ongoing multi-site PCORI/NIH geriatric research about a treatment-resistant depression (OPTIMUM/OPTIMUM-Neuro) trial. This comparative effectiveness research includes patients’ cognition and brain imaging. 

Brooke S. G. Molina, PhD, is a professor of Psychiatry, Psychology, and Pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh and UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital. She directs clinical research at the ADHD Across the Lifespan Program. This long-time longitudinal clinical research involves youth/adolescents and adult patients. This episode presents information on lifetime course prediction, drug misuse, and primary care-based strategies for the management of ADHD.