Aliona Tsypes Aliona Tsypes, PhD Assistant Professor
Dr. Aliona Tsypes

Aliona Tsypes, PhD

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry

I am an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh and a licensed clinical psychologist. My research examines cognitive, behavioral, and neural processes associated with suicidal thoughts and behavior, with a particular focus on reward processing, learning, and decision-making.

I study how people evaluate alternatives, respond to rewards and losses, and adjust their choices using behavioral experiments, computational modeling, and EEG. Complementary clinical and intensive longitudinal research examines how suicidal ideation relates to interpersonal experiences, reasons for living, and individual characteristics. I also investigate distinct correlates of suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury, including among autistic adults.

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Representative Publications

Exploration-Exploitation and Suicidal Behavior in Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression

Tsypes A, Hallquist MN, Ianni A, Kaurin A, Wright AGC, Dombrovski AY.

JAMA Psychiatry. 2024;81(10):1010–1019.
Read Summary of Exploration-Exploitation and Suicidal Behavior in Borderline Personality Disorder and Depression

In two clinical cohorts, individuals with high-lethality suicide attempts explored fewer alternatives because they were less likely to abandon unrewarded choices. Those with low-lethality attempts switched excessively after both rewarded and unrewarded choices. Restricted exploration also prospectively predicted suicidal ideation in a subsample.

When to quit: Calibration of voluntary persistence and attempted suicide in depression

Tsypes A, McGuire JT, Dombrovski AY.

Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2026;205:105148.
Read Summary of When to quit: Calibration of voluntary persistence and attempted suicide in depression

In a behavioral waiting task, individuals with suicide-attempt histories were especially likely to quit immediately following losses. Both attempters and depressed non-suicidal participants also persisted too long once waiting began, distinguishing re-engagement after setbacks from decisions about when to stop waiting.

Reward Responsiveness in Suicide Attempters: An Electroencephalography/Event-Related Potential Study

Tsypes A, Owens M, Gibb BE.

Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. 2021;6(1):99–106.
Read Summary of Reward Responsiveness in Suicide Attempters: An Electroencephalography/Event-Related Potential Study

Adults with suicide-attempt histories showed differences in specific EEG measures of reward anticipation and feedback processing, including reduced anticipatory cue-P3 and feedback-related delta activity. The conventional reward-positivity difference score did not significantly distinguish the groups.

Social context in motion: The effects of personality traits on the dynamic links between interpersonal processes and suicidal ideation

Tsypes A, Scott LN.

Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2026;197:133–142.
Read Summary of Social context in motion: The effects of personality traits on the dynamic links between interpersonal processes and suicidal ideation

Repeated daily-life assessments revealed bidirectional temporal associations between suicidal ideation and perceived interpersonal strain and enrichment. Personality-related Detachment, particularly Anhedonia, was associated with stronger suicidal-ideation responses to these experiences and differences in other dynamic characteristics of suicidal thinking.

Integrating Dimensional Personality and Autistic Traits to Predict Suicidal Ideation, Suicide Attempts, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Autistic Adults

Tsypes A, Allen TA, Antezana L, Beck KB, Conner CM, Scott LN, Mazefsky CA.

Autism Research. 2026;19(4):e70202.
Read Summary of Integrating Dimensional Personality and Autistic Traits to Predict Suicidal Ideation, Suicide Attempts, and Nonsuicidal Self-Injury in Autistic Adults

Among autistic adults, dimensional personality and autism-related traits showed overlapping and distinct associations with suicidal ideation severity, lifetime suicide attempts, and nonsuicidal self-injury. Shared variance involving Anhedonia and Social Interactions was particularly important, alongside outcome-specific associations involving Emotional Lability and Self-Regulatory Behaviors.

Protective effects of reasons for living against suicidal ideation in daily life

Tsypes A, Kaurin A, Wright AGC, Hallquist MN, Dombrovski AY.

Journal of Psychiatric Research. 2022;148:174–180.
Read Summary of Protective effects of reasons for living against suicidal ideation in daily life

Within individuals, greater daily endorsement of reasons for living was associated with lower suicidal ideation, although this association was not observed between individuals. The relationship remained among people with suicide-attempt histories and was particularly pronounced among those with higher average suicidal ideation.

Explore the research questions behind these studies, including additional publications and research support.