As part of our Lecture Series, we were honored to host a presentation by Christopher Pittenger, MD, PhD, director of the Yale OCD Research Clinic. Dr. Pittenger gave an overview of OCD and discussed how cognitive-behavioral therapy affects the brain.
This special event was held on the evening of Tuesday, June 16, 2026, at 6:30 pm in the Cohen Auditorium at the Yale Child Study Center, 230 S. Frontage Road, NIHB E-02, New Haven, CT. Doors open at 6:00 pm.
Dr. Pittenger earned his MD and PhD degrees from Columbia University, where his graduate work was done with Nobel Prize recipient Eric Kandel. He returned to Yale University, his undergraduate alma mater, for residency and research training in psychiatry in 2003. He joined the faculty as an Assistant Professor in 2007 and is now Elizabeth Mears and House Jameson Professor of Psychiatry, Professor of Psychology and in the Child Study Center, and Deputy Chair for Translational Research in the Department of Psychiatry.
Dr. Pittenger has always been fascinated by the question of how the brain, a complex but ultimately a physical structure, creates thought, feeling, consciousness, and other aspects of the mind. As a psychiatrist, he is additionally focused on how these processes go wrong—how brain dysregulation leads to dysregulated cognition, emotion, and behavior and to mental suffering, and how advancing our understanding of these relationships can guide us to new strategies to alleviate that suffering.
Dr. Pittenger’s website is https://medicine.yale.edu/profile/christopher-pittenger/.
The Yale OCD Research Clinic website is https://medicine.yale.edu/psychiatry/ocd/.