Psychiatry Faculty Research Interests

W. Vaughn McCall, MD, Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Health Behavior

• Treatment of depression.
• Insomnia: causes and treatments.
• Therapeutic brain stimulation: ECT and TMS.
• Suicide

Peter B Rosenquist, Vice Chair, Department of Psychiatry & Health Behavior

• Therapeutic brain stimulation: Electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and vagus nerve stimulation.
• Autonomic dysregulation in psychiatric disorders, including heart rate variability and pupillometry.
• Treatment of mood disorders.
• Insomnia: Causes and treatments.
• Suicide

Amy House, PhD

• Psychological flexibility as it relates to change processes in psychotherapy.
• Predictors of change in DBT skills group participants.
• Predictors of change in ACT group participants.

Brian Miller, MD, PhD, MPH

• Immunologic dysfunction in schizophrenia, including inflammation and cytokines.
• Infections in acute psychosis.
• Clinical trials of adjunctive immunotherapy in schizophrenia.
• Insomnia and suicidal ideation in schizophrenia.

Joseph McEvoy, MD

• Biology and treatment of severe mental illness (SMI).
• Severe mental illness (e.g. schizophrenia, bipolar disorder).
• Pharmacological treatment of SMI.
• General health maintenance among patients with SMI.

Anilkumar Pillai, MD

• Neurotrophins in schizophrenia.
• BDNF signaling in depression.
• Gender differences in autism spectrum disorder.
• Maternal stress and neurodevelopmental disorders.

Lara M. Stepleman, PhD., Professor; Co-Director of the Educational Innovation Institute

• Health disparities in marginalized populations including LGBTQ, HIV-positive, and African American individuals, especially women.
• Quality of life for individuals and their care partners affected by one or more chronic medical illnesses (HIV and Multiple Sclerosis, in particular).
• Interprofessional health professions training in sexual health across the learner continuum.
• Integrated behavioral health services.

Nagy Youssef, MD

• Primary disorders/areas studied:
  Mood disorders (including major depressive disorders, bipolar disorders and suicide prevention).
  Trauma, PTSD, and resilience against trauma and psychopathology.
• Primary treatment modalities or tools for the mechanistic understanding of pathophysiology:
  Brain stimulation modalities, especially ECT and novel forms of seizure therapy.
  Genomics, including epigenetics.