Hanga Galfalvy, PhD

  • Associate Professor of Biostatistics (in Psychiatry) at CUMC

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Overview

Dr. Hanga Galfalvy received her PhD in statistics from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her transition into the area of psychiatric research was funded by an NIMH K25 award for developing statistical methodology for predicting suicide and suicide attempt based on multidimensional data. Currently, she has a joint appointment in the Department of Biostatistics and the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia University, and 15 years of research experience in psychiatric statistics.

Academic Appointments

  • Associate Professor of Biostatistics (in Psychiatry) at CUMC

Gender

  • Female

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • PhD, Statistics, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Research

Dr. Galfalvy’s methodological research interests focus on statistical methods for analyzing psychiatric data, including building and evaluating prediction models for suicide/attempt, analysis of multidimensional longitudinally measured data, and statistical genetics. She has collaborated throughout her career with established psychiatric investigators and research groups, both nationally and internationally, as a co-investigator or statistician on projects funded by NIMH, the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the New York State Office of Mental Health, the VA, and SAMHSA.

Research Interests

  • Statistical genetics
  • Statistics in psychiatry
  • Suicidal behavior

Selected 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. 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.

For a complete list of publications, please visit PubMed.gov