Amy Farabaugh, Ph.D.


PhD Investigator Clinical
Psychiatry, Mass General Research Institute
Assistant Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychiatry
Harvard Medical School
Psychologist
Psychiatry, Massachusetts General Hospital
PhD Northeastern University 2001
antidepressive agents second-generation; anxiety; cbt; cognitive behavior therapy; cognitive therapy; compulsive behavior; depression; diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders; fluoxetine; major depressive disorder; parkinson disease; personality disorders; students; treatment-resistant depression

Although Dr Farabaugh currently serves as a co-investigator on a variety of studies involving psychopharmacological treatment and involving screening for depression and suicidality, the focus of her research is on psychotherapeutic treatments for patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) and for patients with MDD with comorbid medical conditions.

She has served as an investigator providing protocol-driven cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for research patients in the NIMH supported treatment resistant depression study, Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D).

She was funded through a Kaplen Fellowship (Harvard Medical School) to examine the prevalence rate of MDD in Parkinson's Disease (PD) and the feasibility of the CBT approach in the treatment of depression in patients with PD.

The findings from the pilot study were promising, indicating that CBT may be an appropriate and effective treatment for MDD in PD. In 2007, she was awarded a K-23 mentored award from NIMH to further investigate CBT for depression in PD. Dr Farabaugh was also awarded a NARSAD to look at QEEG as a predictor of psychotherapy.