Psychiatry Advances

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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. 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.