Hanga Galfalvy, Ph.D. – Conte Center

Hanga Galfalvy, PhD, is Associate Professor of Biostatistics (in Psychiatry) at Columbia University Irving Medical center, with joint appointments in the Department of Psychiatry at the Vagelos College of Physicians & Surgeons and the Department of Biostatistics at Mailman School of Public Health. She is a co-Investigator in the Conte Center for Suicide Prevention Database and Statistical Core 4.

Research Focus

Dr. Galfalvy has worked as a co-Investigator or statistician on several large studies of suicidal behavior. Her research focuses on predictive models for suicide attempts, the genetic basis for suicide, and the effect of the interaction of stress and trait variables on the risk of suicide and suicide attempts. She has authored more than 80 papers published in peer-reviewed psychiatric journals, is a reviewer on numerous scientific journals, as well as reviewer of grants for AFSP and other organizations, and has served on the scientific committee of several conferences.

Select Publications

1. *Galfalvy H, Oquendo MA, Carballo JJ, Sher L, Grunebaum MF, Burke A, Mann JJ. Clinical predictors of suicidal acts after major depression in bipolar disorder: a prospective study. Bipolar Disord. 2006 Oct;8(5 Pt 2):586-95. PubMed PMID:17042832.

2. *Galfalvy HC, Oquendo MA, Mann JJ. Evaluation of clinical prognostic models for suicide attempts after a major depressive episode. Acta Psychiatr Scand. 2008 Apr;117(4):244-52. PubMed PMID: 18321353.

3. *Galfalvy H, Huang YY, Oquendo MA, Currier D, Mann JJ. Increased risk of suicide attempt in mood disorders and TPH1 genotype. J Affect Disord. 2009 Jun;115(3):331-8. Epub 2008 Oct 31. PubMed PMID: 18977032.

4. *Galfalvy H, Haghighi F, Hodgkinson C, Goldman D, Oquendo MA, Burke A, Huang YY, Giegling I, Rujescu D, Bureau A, Turecki G, Mann JJ. A genome-wide association study of suicidal behavior. Am J Med Genet B Neuropsychiatr Genet. 2015 Oct;168(7):557-63. doi: 10.1002/ajmg.b.32330. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 26079190.

5. *Galfalvy H, Currier D, Oquendo MA, Sullivan G, Huang YY, John Mann J. Lower CSF MHPG predicts short-term risk for suicide attempt. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2009 Nov;12(10):1327-35. PubMed PMID: 19573266.

6. *Yin H, Galfalvy H, Pantazatos SP, Huang YY, Rosoklija GB, Dwork AJ, Burke A, Arango V, Oquendo MA, Mann JJ. Glucocorticoid receptor-related genes: genotype and brain gene expression relationships to suicide and major depressive disorder. Depress Anxiety. 2016 Mar 31. doi: 10.1002/da.22499. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 27030168.

7. *Oquendo MA, Galfalvy H, Sullivan GM, Miller JM, Milak MM, Sublette ME, Cisneros-Trujillo S, Burke AK, Parsey RV, Mann JJ. Positron Emission Tomographic Imaging of the Serotonergic System and Prediction of Risk and Lethality of Future Suicidal Behavior. JAMA Psychiatry. 2016 Oct 1;73(10):1048-1055. doi: 10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2016.1478. PubMed PMID: 27463606.

8. *Bernanke J, Galfalvy HC, Mortali MG, Hoffman LA, Moutier C, Nemeroff CB, Stanley BH, Clayton P, Harkavy-Friedman J, Oquendo MA. Suicidal ideation and behavior in institutions of higher learning: A latent class analysis. J Psychiatr Res. 2017 Dec;95:253-259. doi: 10.1016/j.jpsychires.2017.09.003. Epub 2017 Sep 9. PubMed PMID: 28923719; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5826724.

9. Szanto K, Galfalvy H, Vanyukov PM, Keilp JG, Dombrovski AY. Pathways to Late-Life Suicidal Behavior: Cluster Analysis and Predictive Validation of Suicidal Behavior in a Sample of Older Adults With Major Depression. J Clin Psychiatry. 2018 Mar/Apr;79(2). pii: 17m11611. doi: 10.4088/JCP.17m11611. PubMed PMID: 29489076; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5932247.

10. Grunebaum MF, Galfalvy HC, Choo TH, Keilp JG, Moitra VK, Parris MS, Marver JE, Burke AK, Milak MS, Sublette ME, Oquendo MA, Mann JJ. Ketamine for Rapid Reduction of Suicidal Thoughts in Major Depression: A Midazolam-Controlled Randomized Clinical Trial. Am J Psychiatry. 2018 Apr 1;175(4):327-335. doi: 10.1176/appi.ajp.2017.17060647. Epub 2017 Dec 5. PubMed PMID: 29202655; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5880701.

11. Rizk MM, Galfalvy H, Singh T, Keilp JG, Sublette ME, Oquendo MA, Mann JJ, Stanley B. Toward subtyping of suicidality: Brief suicidal ideation is associated with greater stress response. J Affect Disord. 2018 Apr 1;230:87-92. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.01.012. PubMed PMID: 29407544; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC5811401.

12. Parris MS, Grunebaum MF, Galfalvy HC, Andronikashvili A, Burke AK, Yin H, Min E, Huang YY, Mann JJ. Attempted suicide and oxytocin-related gene polymorphisms. J Affect Disord. 2018 Oct 1;238:62-68. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.05.022. Epub 2018 May 17. PubMed PMID: 29860184.

13. Underwood MD, Kassir SA, Bakalian MJ, Galfalvy H, Dwork AJ, Mann JJ, Arango V. Serotonin receptors and suicide, major depression, alcohol use disorder and reported early life adversity. Transl Psychiatry. 2018 Dec 14;8(1):279. doi: 10.1038/s41398-018-0309-1. PubMed PMID: 30552318; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6294796.

14. Boldrini M, Galfalvy H, Dwork AJ, Rosoklija GB, Trencevska-Ivanovska I, Pavlovski G, Hen R, Arango V, Mann JJ. Resilience Is Associated With Larger Dentate Gyrus, While Suicide Decedents With Major Depressive Disorder Have Fewer Granule Neurons. Biol Psychiatry. 2019 Jan 17. pii: S0006-3223(19)30032-0. doi: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.12.022. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30819514.

15. Steinberg LJ, Rubin-Falcone H, Galfalvy HC, Kaufman J, Miller JM, Sublette ME, Cooper TB, Min E, Keilp JG, Stanley BH, Oquendo MA, Ogden RT, Mann JJ. Cortisol Stress Response and in Vivo PET Imaging of Human Brain Serotonin 1A Receptor Binding. Int J Neuropsychopharmacol. 2019 Mar 28. pii: pyz009. doi: 10.1093/ijnp/pyz009. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30927011.