Psychiatry Advances

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).

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.

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.

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.