Posts by Maurizio Fava, MD
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Propensity Score Weighting Accounts Well for Placebo Response in Two Trials of Medical Therapy for MDD
Maurizio Fava, MD, and colleagues previously developed an AI approach to account for the propensity to respond to placebo in randomized, controlled trials of drugs for major depressive disorder (MDD), and they show the method more accurately interprets the results of trials complicated by the placebo response.
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Chief of Psychiatry, Maurizio Fava, MD, Discusses U.S. News & World Report ranking Mass General #1 for Psychiatry in 2024-25
The Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Psychiatry has been recognized for its exceptional commitment to advancing mental healthcare. Mass General was ranked #1 Psychiatry in the nation for Psychiatry in 2024-25 by U.S. News and World Report.
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AI Approach Can Predict Placebo Responders in Clinical Trials in Major Depressive Disorder
Maurizio Fava, MD, and colleagues created an artificial intelligence–assisted method for predicting each individual's propensity to respond to placebo in randomized, controlled trials of interventions for major depressive disorder, which can make treatment arms more comparable and boost the efficacy signal.
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Diminished Frontal Pole Size, Functional Connectivity Linked to Elevated Suicide Risk in Young Adults
Gwang-Won Kim, PhD, Maurizio Fava, MD, Daphne J. Holt, MD, PhD, and colleagues published evidence that reduced frontal pole size and reduced functional connectivity between the frontal pole and the inferior frontal cortex are markers of elevated suicidality in young adults.
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Esmethadone Safe and Tolerable in Phase 2a Trial in Major Depressive Disorder
Maurizio Fava, MD, and colleagues recently completed a phase 2a trial in which esmethadone provided rapid, sustained relief of symptoms of major depressive disorder without dissociative or psychotic symptoms, withdrawal effects after abrupt discontinuation, or other adverse events of special interest.
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Mass General Researchers Find Esmethadone Effective For Major Depressive Disorder
Led by Maurizio Fava, MD, a team of Massachusetts General Hospital researchers have discovered that esmethadone produces favorable outcomes for patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder who previously experienced inadequate responses to antidepressant treatments.
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Improvement Needed in Genetic Test–Guided Treatment of Major Depressive Disorder
The selection of antidepressants guided by a commercially available pharmacogenomic test did not result in differences in depression severity over eight weeks compared with treatment as usual.
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Amygdala Dysregulation Is a Marker of Low Resilience and Risk of Depression in Young Adults
In nondepressed young adults who had a family history of depression, higher amygdala activity on functional MRI was significantly correlated with lower resilience.
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Depression & COVID-19: A Q&A with Maurizio Fava, MD, on Resources for Patients and Providers
Maurizio Fava, MD, psychiatrist-in-chief at Massachusetts General Hospital, explains the connection between COVID-19 and rising mental health concerns and what providers can do to help their patients and themselves.
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The Importance of Multidisciplinary Expertise in Psychiatry
The Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital includes a wide-ranging research portfolio that spans virtually every major psychiatric disorder. In this video, Maurizio Fava, MD, psychiatrist-in-chief, discusses the value of working with diverse teams that feature multidisciplinary expertise in the field.
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Improving Psychiatric Research Through Better Clinical Trials
In this video, Maurizio Fava, MD, the executive director of the Clinical Trials Network & Institute (CTNI) at Massachusetts General Hospital, discusses how the CTNI is working to improve clinical trials in the field of psychiatry.
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Finding Better Treatments for Depression
Depression affects millions of Americans each year, yet many people struggle to find treatments that work. In this video, Maurizio Fava, MD, discusses the challenges of current medications and his work to find better options.
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Q&A with Dr. Maurizio Fava: New Chief of Psychiatry's Vision for the Future
Maurizio Fava, MD, the newly appointed chief of the Department of Psychiatry, reflects on his outlook for the department and the field of psychiatry as he takes over as chair.
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Clinical Trial Suggests New Combination Drug Targeting Opioid System May Relieve Major Depression Symptoms
Two clinical trials examining an investigational drug that combines buprenorphine and samidorphan to target the opioid system has shown to be safe and effective in reducing symptoms of major depression when added to standard antidepressant treatment.
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Calculator Predicts Which Patients with Major Depression Will Respond to Placebo
As a boon to clinicians as well as researchers, a multicenter team has identified eight easy-to-measure patient characteristics that define likely placebo responders with a high degree of accuracy.
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Effective Ketamine Dosages for Treatment-resistant Depression Identified
Ketamine has long been used as a general anesthetic, but more recent research has found it to be effective in rapidly relieving depression symptoms when given at low, subanesthetic doses. New research identifies two optimal dosages.
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Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy Shows Promise for Treating Depression in Chronically Ill Patients
Mass General researchers were part of the first group to investigate whether mindfulness-based cognitive therapy might relieve depression in people with chronic pain.
Biography
Dr. Fava obtained his MD from the University of Padova School of Medicine where he completed residency training in endocrinology. He completed residency training in psychiatry at the MGH. He founded and was Director of the hospital’s Depression Clinical and Research Program (DCRP) from 1990 to 2014. In 2007, he founded and is now Executive Director of the MGH Psychiatry Clinical Trials Network and Institute (CTNI), the first academic CRO specialized in planning and coordination of multi-center clinical trials in psychiatry.
Under Dr. Fava’s direction, the DCRP became one of the most highly regarded depression programs in the country, a model for academic programs that link, in a bi-directional fashion, clinical and research work. Dr. Fava has been successful in obtaining funding as principal or co-principal investigator from both the National Institutes of Health and other sources for a total of more than $95,000,000. His prominence in the field is reflected in his role as the co-principal investigator of STAR*D, the largest research study ever conducted in the area of depression, and of the RAPID Network, the NIMH-funded series of studies of novel, rapidly-acting antidepressant therapies.
Dr. Fava is a world leader in the field of depression. He has authored or co-authored more than 800 original articles published in medical journals with international circulation, edited eight books, and published more than 50 chapters and over 600 abstracts.
Dr. Fava is Editor-in-Chief of MGH's Mind, Mood & Memory newsletter. Click on the link for more information and a free trial issue.
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