Dara Sakolsky, M.D., PhD

  • Associate Professor of Psychiatry

    Education & Training

  • Board Certification, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology (Child and Adolescent Psychiatry)
  • Postdoctoral, Pediatric Anxiety Disorders, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine
  • Fellowship, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC
  • Residency, Psychiatry, Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic of UPMC
  • PhD, Pharmacology, Temple University, School of Medicine
  • MD, Temple University, School of Medicine
Awards
NARSAD Young Investigator Award, Genetics of Treatment Response in Childhood Anxiety Disorders, 2008-2011
Research Interests

Dr. Sakolsky earned an MD, as well as her PhD in pharmacology, from Temple University School of Medicine and completed general psychiatry residency training and a fellowship in child and adolescent psychiatry at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital (WPH). Dr. Sakolsky undertook postdoctoral training through a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded T32 under the mentorship of David Brent, MD, and Boris Birmaher, MD. She was appointed Assistant Professor of Psychiatry in 2012.

Dr. Sakolsky’s clinical expertise is in pediatric depression and anxiety, as well as in treating young people with bipolar disorder or those who are suicidal—a high-risk, especially challenging population. As associate medical director of Services for Teens at Risk (STAR), Dr. Sakolsky has developed several important programmatic innovations, including playing a key role in the development of measurement-based care, enabling clinicians to quickly review patient progress at critical moments. She also contributed substantially to the development of an intensive outpatient program for depressed, anxious or suicidal college students (Co-STAR). In addition to Dr. Sakolsky’s substantial clinical responsibilities, she also contributes to federally funded research projects in the Department, including several important and high-profile studies on pediatric anxiety and mood disorders.

Dr. Sakolsky’s teaching in the Department of Psychiatry and at WPH focuses on anxiety and suicide prevention in children in and youth, and she has made enormous contributions to the training of medical students, residents and fellows.