- MD, PhD, Columbia University (2009)
Education & Training
Using genetic, neuroimaging, and assessment tools to understand the phenotype of mood instability, particularly in young people with and at risk for bipolar disorder.
Our lab uses a combination of clinical assessments, neuroimaging, and technology-based in vivo assessments to longitudinally assess mood symptoms and the effect of early interventions, focusing on young people with bipolar disorder. One key ongoing project is a randomized trial of a mindfulness intervention to target mood instability in youth at risk for mood disorders, assessing neurobehavioral mechanisms (using longitudinal resting-state scans and sustained attention tasks) of clinical improvements. We have an additional project focused on using mobile sensing to characterize mood instability in young people with bipolar disorder, using sophisticated personalized models to predict mood recurrence. Our lab is highly integrated with a clinic for young people with and at risk for bipolar disorder, leading to clinically informed and relevant hypotheses and studies.
Hafeman DM, Feldman J, Mak J, Merranko J, Goldstein TR, Gratton C, Phillips ML, Birmaher B. Longitudinal Stability of Mood-Related Resting-State Networks in Youth with Symptomatic Bipolar-I/II Disorder (2025). Translational psychiatry. 15(1):187.
Hafeman DM, Uher R, Merranko J, Zwicker A, Goldstein B, Goldstein TR, Axelson D, Monk K, Sakolsky D, Iyengar S, Diler R, Nimgaonkar V, Birmaher B. Person-level contributions of bipolar polygenic risk score to the prediction of new-onset bipolar disorder in at-risk offspring. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2025. 368:359–365.
Hafeman DM, Merranko J, Goldstein BI, Zwicker A, Uher R, Phillips ML, Birmaher B. Association between polygenic risk score and neural markers of risk for bipolar disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders 2024. 354:318-320.
Hafeman DM, Merranko J, Joseph HA, Goldstein T, Goldstein B, Levenson J, Axelson D, Monk K, Hickey MB, Sakolsky D, Iyengar S, Birmaher B. Indicators of risk for bipolar disorder in preschool offspring of parents with bipolar disorder. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 2023 Oct;64(10):1492-1500.
Hafeman DM, Goldstein TR, Strober JM, Merranko J, Gill MK, Liao F, Diler RS, Ryan ND, Goldstein BI, Axelson DA, Keller MB, Hunt JI, Hower H, Weinstock LM, Yen S, Birmaher B. Prospectively Ascertained Mania and Hypomania Among Young Adults with Child- and Adolescent-Onset Bipolar Disorder. Bipolar Disorders. 2021;23(5):463-473.
Hafeman DM, Ostroff N, Feldman J, Hickey MB, Phillips ML, Creswell D, Birmaher B, Goldstein TR. Mindfulness-Based Intervention to Decrease Mood Lability in At-Risk Youth: Preliminary Evidence for Changes in Resting State Functional Connectivity. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2020;(276):23-29.
Hafeman DM, Chase HW, Monk K, Bonar L, Hickey MB, McCaffrey A, Graur S, Manelis A, Ladouceur CD, Merranko J, Axelson DA, Goldstein BI, Goldstein TR, Birmaher B, Phillips ML. Intrinsic functional connectivity correlates of person-level risk for bipolar disorder in offspring of affected parents. Neuropsychopharmacology. 2019;44(3):629-634.
Hafeman D, Merranko J, Goldstein T, Axelson D, Goldstein B, Monk K, Hickey MB, Sakolsky D, Diler R, Iyengar S, Brent D, Kupfer D, Kattan MW, Birmaher B, Individualizing the bipolar prodrome: person-level risk calculator to predict new-onset bipolar spectrum disorder in youth at familial risk. JAMA Psychiatry. 2017.
Hafeman DM, Merranko J, Axelson D, Goldstein B, Goldstein T, Monk K, Hickey MB, Sakolsky D, Diler R, Iyengar S, Brent D, Kupfer D, Birmaher B. Toward the definition of a bipolar prodrome: Dimensional predictors of bipolar spectrum disorder in at-risk youth. American Journal of Psychiatry. 2016;173(7):695-704
