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Aliona Tsypes PhD

  • Assistant Professor

I received my Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Hunter College in 2012 and earned a PhD in Clinical Psychology from Binghamton University in 2020. I completed my clinical internship at the UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital before completing an NIMH T32-funded postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh. I combine electroencephalography, computational modeling, and EMA to improve the understanding and treatment of suicidal thoughts and behaviors. I am particularly interested in elucidating how alterations in value-based decision-making contribute to suicide risk.

    Education & Training

  • Postdoctoral: Clinical Research Training for Psychologists, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Internship: Clinical Psychology, UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital
  • PHD: Clinical Psychology, State University of New York, Binghamton
Research Interests

Suicide; Learning & decision-making; Neurocomputational modeling:

Cortical Oscillatory Dynamics and Decision Deficits in Suicidal Behavior

Selected Research Publications & Products

  1. Tsypes, A., Hallquist, M.N., Ianni, A., Kaurin, A., Wright, A.G.C., & Dombrovski, A.Y. Exploration-exploitation and suicidal behavior in borderline personality disorder and depression. JAMA Psychiatry, 81(10), 1010-1019.
  2. Tsypes A, Szanto K, Bridge JA, Brown VM, Keilp JG, & Dombrovski AY. (2022). Delay discounting in suicidal behavior: Myopic preference or inconsistent valuation? Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, 131(1), 3444.
  3. Tsypes A, Kaurin A, Wright AGC, Hallquist MN, & Dombrovski AY (2022). Protective effects of reasons for living against suicidal ideation in daily life. Journal of Psychiatric Research, 148, 174180.
  4. Tsypes A, Owens M, & Gibb BE (2021). Reward Responsiveness in Suicide Attempters: An Electroencephalography/Event-Related Potential Study. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 6(1), 99-106.

Clinical Interests

Suicide prevention; Acceptance & commitment therapy (transdiagnostic)

Education Interests

Research mentorship; Clinical supervision; Teaching (suicide/suicide prevention)