New Biomarker Test Can Detect Alzheimer’s Neurodegeneration in Blood | UPMC Physician Resources

A group of neuroscientists led by Thomas Karikari, PhD, assistant professor of psychiatry at Pitt, developed a test to detect a novel marker of Alzheimer’s disease neurodegeneration in a blood sample. A study on their results was published in Brain.

Molecular Psychiatry: Altered Patterns of Brain Connectivity Associated with Depression Risk in Young Adults | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

A team of investigators from the University of Pittsburgh, including Michele Bertocci, PhD, Yvette Afriyie-Agyemang, Renata Rozovsky, PhD, and Mary Phillips, MD, MD, looked at the central executive network (which supports emotion regulation subcomponent processes such as working memory), the default mode network (which supports self-related information), and the salience network (which is associated with self-referential processing); interference among these networks during working memory may predispose to depressive disorders. 

Genetic Risk for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Predicts Cognitive Decline and Development Of Alzheimer’s Disease Pathophysiology in Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

A team of investigators including Douglas Leffa, MD, PhD; Bruna Bellaver, PhD; Pamela Lukasewicz Ferreira, PhD; Dana Tudorascu, PhD; Victor Villemagne, MD; Ann Cohen, PhD; William Klunk, MD, PhD; Thomas Karikari, PhD; Brooke Molina, PhD; and Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, used data from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a longitudinal multicenter study designed to develop clinical, imaging, genetic, and biochemical biomarkers for the early detection and tracking of Alzheimer’s disease. 

JAMA Psychiatry: Dynamic Feedback Between Antidepressant Placebo Expectancies and Mood | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Marta Peciña, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, and investigators including Alex Dombrovski, MD, Pittsburgh Foundation Endowed Professor in Brain and Mind Research and Associate Professor of Psychiatry, investigated what makes antidepressant placebo effects persist over time. 

Carotid Intima Media Thickness and White Matter Hyperintensity Volume among Midlife Women | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Scientists including Rebecca Thurston, PhD, Minjie Wu, PhD, and Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD, tested the hypothesis that higher carotid intima media thickness, an indicator of subclinical atherosclerosis, would be associated with greater white matter hyperintensities volume among midlife women. 

Sleep Abnormalities in Different Clinical Stages of Psychosis: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

In a systematic review and meta-analysis recently published in JAMA Psychiatry, scientists including corresponding authors Ahmed Mayeli, PhD,Fabio Ferrarelli, MD, PhD, and Francesco Donati, MD, investigated the occurrence and severity of sleep abnormalities in studies reporting sleep quality, sleep architecture, or sleep electroencephalography oscillations across clinical stages of psychosis. The review and meta-analysis included 5,135 patients from 21 studies and identified both uniformly present and stage-specific sleep disruptions.

Biological Psychiatry: Strength of Excitatory Inputs to Layer 3 Pyramidal Neurons During Synaptic Pruning in the Monkey Prefrontal Cortex: Relevance for the Pathogenesis of Schizophrenia | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Pitt Department of Psychiatry scientists Guillermo Gonzalez-Burgos, PhD, David Lewis, MD, and their colleagues assessed the densities of dendritic spines, the site of most excitatory inputs to layer 3 pyramidal neurons, and the distributions of excitatory synaptic strengths in dorsolateral prefrontal cortex layer 3 pyramidal neurons from male and female monkeys across the periadolescent period of synaptic pruning.

Disrupted Rhythms of Rest and Wakefulness Contribute to Worse Symptoms in Schizophrenia Patients | UPMC Physician Resources

In a paper published today in Molecular Psychiatry, a team of scientists from the University of Pittsburgh in collaboration with researchers in Italy described shared patterns of sleep disturbances and irregularities in daily rhythms of rest and activity across patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder, or SSD. Fabio Ferrarelli, MD, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and senior author of the study.

Prediction of Suicide Attempts and Suicide-Related Events Among Adolescents Seen in Emergency Departments | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

A team of scientists led by Cheryl King, PhD (University of Michigan), Jackie Grupp-Phelan, MD, MPH (University of California, San Francisco), and David Brent, MD (University of Pittsburgh Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Epidemiology, and Clinical and Translational Science and Endowed Chair in Suicide Studies), compared two instruments for the prediction of suicidal behavior among 2,740 adolescents seen in emergency departments: the Ask Suicide-Screening Questions (ASQ) instrument and the Computerized Adaptive Screen for Suicidal Youth (CASSY). 

New Research from Pitt Psychiatry on Alzheimer’s Disease Biomarkers | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Department of Psychiatry investigators focused on Alzheimer’s Research—Victor Villemagne, MD; Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD; and Thomas Karikari, PhD, published studies improving our understanding of biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease.

American Journal of Psychiatry: The Nature of Prefrontal Cortical GABA Neuron Alterations in Schizophrenia: Markedly Lower Somatostatin and Parvalbumin Gene Expression Without Missing Neurons | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Pitt Psychiatry investigators including Samuel Dienel (Medical Science Training Program student); Kenneth Fish, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry); and David Lewis, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Thomas Detre Professor of Academic Psychiatry), sought to determine whether the well-documented lower tissue levels of somatostatin and parvalbumin mRNAs in schizophrenia are due to lower levels of these transcripts per neuron, fewer neurons that contain these transcripts, or both. 

Molecular Psychiatry - Prefrontal, Parietal, and Limbic Condition-Dependent Differences in Bipolar Disorder: A Large-Scale Meta-Analysis of Functional Neuroimaging Studies | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

A team of scientists including Maya Schumer (neuroscience PhD candidate, University of Pittsburgh); Henry Chase, PhD (Research Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Renata Rozovsky, PhD (postdoctoral associate); and Mary Phillips, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Clinical and Translational Science, and Bioengineering, and Pittsburgh Foundation-Emmerling Endowed Chair in Psychotic Disorders), published a meta-analysis in Molecular Psychiatry that comprehensively reassesses brain activation and connectivity in bipolar disorder to identify replicable differences that converge across and within resting-state, cognitive, and emotional neuroimaging experiments.

New Blood Biomarker Can Predict if Cognitively Healthy Elderly Will Develop Alzheimer’s Disease | UPMC Physician Resources

Star-shaped brain cells called astrocytes are key to swaying the pendulum in Alzheimer’s disease progression, shows new game-changing research published in Nature Medicine. Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, was the senior author.

Microglial and Astrocyte Reactivity Are Key to Determining Alzheimer’s Disease Progression | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, is an internationally recognized expert on the imaging and fluid biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. He recently published two papers examining the multifaceted but interactive nature of Alzheimer’s disease pathology.

Neurocognitive and Cardiometabolic Function in Retired Night shift Workers  | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

In an observational study published in Scientific Reports, Dr. Hall and investigators including Brian Chin, PhD (postdoctoral scholar); Matthew Lehrer, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Eunjin Tracy, PhD (postdoctoral scholar); Kristine Wilckens, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); and Daniel Buysse, MD (Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry, Medicine, and Clinical and Translational Science, and UPMC Endowed Chair in Sleep Medicine), evaluated whether retired night shift workers and retired day workers differed in their cardiometabolic function.

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience: Mother–Child Neural Synchronization Is Time Linked to Mother–Child Positive Affective State Matching | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

A group of investigators including Judith Morgan, PhD (Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Psychology); Erika Forbes, PhD (Professor of Psychiatry, Pediatrics, Psychology and Clinical and Translational Science); and Heather Joseph, DO (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics), from Pitt Psychiatry, evaluated whether greater positive affective state matching between mothers and their very young children (ages 1-3 years old) would be associated with greater synchronization of brain activity in neural regions involved in positive emotion expression and regulation. 

Treating Childhood ADHD with Stimulant Meds Not Associated with Increased Substance Use Later in Life, Study Finds | UPMC Physician Resources

Children taking a prescription stimulant to manage symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder do not have more substance use or substance use disorder as adolescents or young adults, according to a new study. Brooke Molina, PhD, and Traci Kennedy, PhD, were co-authors of the study.

Biological Psychiatry: Neural Network Functional Interactions Mediate or Suppress White Matter–Emotional Behavior Relationships in Infants  | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

In Biological Psychiatry, investigators including Layla Banihashemi, PhD; Michele Bertocci, PhD; João Paulo Lima Santos, MD; Amelia Versace, MD; Jessie Northrup, PhD; the study’s principal investigators Alison Hipwell, PhD, PsyD; and Mary Phillips, MD, used multimodal neuroimaging to study how functional interactions among large-scale networks influence white matter microstructural-emotional behavior relationships in infants. 

Randomized Trial of Brief Interpersonal Psychotherapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression Delivered Both In-Person and by Telehealth | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Investigators including Holly Swartz, MD, and Lauren Bylsma, PhD, randomly assigned adults with MDD to eight sessions of in-person IPT or CBT to determine the effects of telehealth.

Biological Psychiatry: Distinct Patterns of Abnormal Lateral Orbitofrontal Cortex Activity During Compulsive Grooming and Reversal Learning Normalize after Fluoxetine | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Investigators including Matthew Geramita, MD, PhD, and Susanne Ahmari, MD, PhD, measured neural activity in mice with in vivo calcium imaging of individual lateral orbitofrontal cortex neurons during compulsive grooming and reversal learning before and after fluoxetine treatment.

Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD, Receives 2023 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation Gerald R. Klerman Award | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Danella Hafeman, MD, PhD, received the 2023 Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (BBRF) Gerald R. Klerman Award.

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry: The Role of Social Media in the Presentation of Dissociative Symptoms in Adolescents | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

In a recent paper published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, Christian Porter (PhD student, Pitt School of Social Work); and Tushita Mayanil, MBBS (MD) (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry); Tina Gupta, PhD (postdoctoral scholar); and Leslie Horton, PhD (Assistant Professor of Psychiatry), from Pitt Psychiatry, outlined the increased presence of dissociative identity disorder-related content on social media, particularly TikTok, and its impact on some children and adolescents. 

JAMA Network Open: Risk for Suicidal Behavior after Psychiatric Hospitalization among Sexual and Gender Minority Patients | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Investigators including Brian Thoma, PhD; Dara Sakolsky, MD, PhD; Antoine Douaihy, MD; David Brent, MD; and Nadine Melhem, PhD, conducted a prospective cohort study among inpatients between 18-30 years old who were hospitalized at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital, with prospective data collected via follow-up visits and electronic health records. 

In Breakthrough Study, Researchers Map Converging Trajectories of Cognitive Development Through Adolescence | UPMC Physician Resources

A new study published in Nature Communications presents some of the first definitive evidence that executive function — a set of cognitive skills underlying the ability to plan, seamlessly switch from task to task, resist tempting distractions and focus on a task at hand — usually matures by the time an individual turns 18 years old. Beatriz Luna, PhD, was senior author of the study. 

Irritability, Agitation and Anxiety in Alzheimer’s Patients Caused by Brain Inflammation, Pitt Study Says | UPMC Physician Resources

Common neuropsychiatric symptoms that doctors see in Alzheimer’s disease patients originate from brain inflammation rather than amyloid and tau proteins, report University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine researchers in JAMA Network Open. Cristiano Aguzzoli, MD, was first author and Tharick Pascoal, MD, PhD, was senior author of the study.

International Psychogeriatrics: Childhood Trauma is Associated with Early-Onset but not Late-Onset Suicidal Behavior in Late-Life Depression | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Investigators led by Katalin Szanto, MD, examined the relationship between various types of childhood trauma and early and late-onset suicidal behavior among depressed older adults.

JAMA Psychiatry: Diagnostic Specificity and Association with Cognition of Molecular Alterations in Prefrontal Somatostatin Neurons in Schizophrenia | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

To improve understanding of somatostatin alterations in schizophrenia across zones, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh including Samuel Dienel, PhD; Kevin Dowling; Kenneth Fish, PhD; and David Lewis, MD, investigated the prefrontal cortical patterns of molecular alterations in somatostatin neurons with the goal of determining whether these patterns are diagnosis specific and whether they are associated with measures of premorbid cognitive function.

JAMA Psychiatry: Patterns of Neural Network Functional Connectivity Associated With Mania/Hypomania and Depression Risk in 3 Independent Young Adult Samples  | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

To identify neural markers differentiating mania/hypomania from depression risk, Pitt Psychiatry investigators including Maya Schumer, PhD; Michele Bertocci, PhD; Henry Chase, PhD; and Mary Phillips, MD, conducted a cross-sectional study of three samples of 299 young adults (ages 18-30 years old) without bipolar disorder or active substance use disorder.

Associations Between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Cardiovascular and Brain Health in Women; Sex-Dependent Alterations in the Memory Network  | University of Pittsburgh Department of Psychiatry

Investigators including Rebecca Thurston, PhD; Karen Jakubowski, PhD; Minjie Wu, PhD; and Howard Aizenstein, MD, PhD, recruited 274 women (ages 45-67 years old), who underwent vascular imaging, neuroimaging, and a comprehensive neuropsychological battery.