Researcher profile

Elizabeth Lippard

I am a developmental neurobiologist with a research program that investigates neurophysiological and behavioral mechanisms related to risk for developing mood-related—with an emphasis on bipolar disorder and suicide thoughts and behavior—and alcohol/cannabis problems, the relationship between these outcomes, and the role(s) of early life stress, acute stress, and alcohol/cannabis exposure. I have expertise in bipolar disorder, suicide, adolescent/young adult brain development, longitudinal modeling, co-occurring alcohol and cannabis use/disorders, childhood maltreatment, stress, social processes, alcohol administration, placebo response, expectancies, and neuroimaging methods. For my postdoctoral fellowship, I trained in structural neuroimaging, including diffusion tensor imaging, and longitudinal approaches, with research aimed at identifying structural neuroanatomical predictors and trajectories associated with development of alcohol/cannabis problems, suicide thoughts and behavior, and interactions between these outcomes in young adults with bipolar disorder. I also contributed to longitudinal study of the impact of childhood maltreatment on adolescent brain development in typical developing youth and youth with bipolar disorder. Over the past ten years, I have completed training in functional neuroimaging methods, including functional connectivity. I trained over the past nine years in alcohol administration approaches, including placebo manipulation. I have investigated familial factors related to mood disorders and/or alcohol use problems on developmental trajectories in young adulthood. My current two funded R01s are investigating neural phenotypes, subjective response to alcohol, placebo response, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol-related outcomes in young adults with bipolar disorder and adults with PTSD. My lab also investigates the role(s) of stress (childhood maltreatment, acute stress) in risk for development of alcohol/cannabis misuse and suicide-related thoughts and behavior in bipolar disorder and typical developing young adults. Emerging data from these studies emphasize differences in perception in bipolar disorder that is associated with trauma, familial factors, and relate to clinical outcomes. I have also worked with mother/infants and early adolescents. My prior graduate work included investigating infant cries and interactions with the maternal caretaking environment and psychosocial/environmental factors that disrupt or strengthen this relationship to affect outcomes in both moms and their infants. I am extending this work at UT Austin, investigating an intervention focused on improved mother/infant communication in mothers with bipolar disorder. I have a foundation in language biomarkers to inform future longitudinal and intervention work in youth with, and at-risk for, bipolar disorder.