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Einstein Experts

Vilma Gabbay, M.D.

Professor, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences

Professor, Dominick P. Purpura Department of Neuroscience

Co-Director, Psychiatry Research Institute of Montefiore and Einstein (PRIME)

Director, Pediatric Mood and Anxiety Disorders Research Program, Einstein and Montefiore Health System

Pediatric anxiety & mood disordersAdolescent depression & suicideBiology of depression/neuroinflammationCOVID-19 & psychosis

Vilma Gabbay, Ph.D., is one of the nation’s leading experts on pediatric mood and anxiety disorders. She has received numerous federal grants to study a range of subjects, including neuroinflammation, teenage anhedonia (inability to feel pleasure), and brain systems related to reward-seeking behaviors in adolescent suicide and depression.

Dr. Gabbay uses a multidisciplinary approach, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), immunological and genetic assays, and comprehensive clinical evaluations, to enhance understanding of the disorders, advance early identification, improve diagnosis, and develop novel treatments.

Dr. Gabbay is co-primary investigator on a National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for the Integrative Management of Chronic Pain and OUD [Opioid Use Disorder] for Whole Recovery Research Center at Montefiore Einstein (IMPOWR-ME), one of only four multidisciplinary research centers nationwide focused on accelerating the pace of scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Within the center, she co-leads a study to test psychiatric therapies for people who receive care at Montefiore’s buprenorphine clinics. She is also principal investigator on four large NIH studies on: the function and chemical changes in the brains of people living with HIV, depression, and cannabis use disorder; novel therapies to address parental stress during the COVID-19 pandemic; and biological markers as predictors for depression in youth. She is also principal investigator on two NIH-funded studies on: the development of the brain’s habenula in early adolescence and its role in psychiatric illness onset; and the positive and negative emotional stimuli underlying suicide in youth.

Dr. Gabbay has received numerous awards, including the American Psychiatric Association’s Blanche F. Ittleson Award for Research in Child Psychiatry, and has been published extensively in top-tier scientific journals.