About

Anita S. Kablinger, MD, CPI, FAAP, FAPA, FACRP, FASCP, is Vice Chair of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine and a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine. She has conducted more than 180 trials as Principal Investigator, Co-Investigator, or Sub-Investigator for industry, academia, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. Her research areas include education, treatments for psychosis, anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders, as well as research professional development. In addition to her research and teaching activities, Dr. Kablinger maintains a clinical practice that includes both inpatient and outpatient settings, with expertise in assessment, psychopharmacology, and measurement-based care. Her professional memberships include the American Psychiatric Association, the Association of Clinical Research Professionals, the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology, and the Association of Academic Psychiatry. She has received numerous awards and honors, including being elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha society, recognition as Virginia’s Top Doctors in 2024, and multiple fellowships and teaching awards. Dr. Kablinger’s work emphasizes community engagement, research collaboration, and advancing clinical practice in psychiatry.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychiatry
• Clinical psychology
• Psychology
• Sociology
• Internal medicine
• Demography
• Family medicine
• Environmental health
• Virology
• Emergency medicine
• Psychotherapist
• Endocrinology
• Social psychology
• Medical education
• Medical emergency
• Developmental psychology
• Criminology
• Nursing

Selected publications

• Risk of Neuropsychiatric Disorders After Pediatric Delirium in Children Under 12: A Cohort Study

  Psychiatry Investigation · 2026-04-07

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  OBJECTIVE: Delirium is known to be related to neuropsychiatric comorbidities as long-term consequences in adult patients. However, the risk of major neuropsychiatric disorders after pediatric delirium remains largely unexplored. METHODS: We analyzed de-identified electronic health records (2013 to 2023) from the TriNetX Research network, a network with more than 111 million patients. Patients under age 12 years with delirium and a control group without delirium were identified and matched by age, sex, race, ethnicity, and physical comorbidities at a one-to-four ratio. We applied Cox regression and Kaplan-Meier analysis to assess the risk of neuropsychiatric disorders. RESULTS: A total of 618 pediatric patients with delirium were included, demonstrating a 2.15-fold higher risk of neuropsychiatric disorders than controls without delirium (hazard ratio [HR] with 95% confidence interval [CI]: 2.15, 1.82-2.56). The 5-year freedom from these disorders was 68.5% (95% CI, 65.5-71.8) in the study cohort, whereas it was 49.8% (95% CI, 44.1-56.2) in the control cohort. Subgroup analysis showed that children aged 6 years or younger were more likely to be diagnosed with externalizing disorder, including substance use disorder (HR=4.34; 95% CI, 2.00-9.44; p<0.001), intellectual disability (HR=1.71; 95% CI, 1.27-2.30; p<0.001), and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (HR=2.25; 95% CI, 1.16-4.34; p=0.02). CONCLUSION: Pediatric patients with delirium are at increased risk of major neuropsychiatric disorders compared to their control counterparts without delirium. Clinicians need to be aware of early symptoms and signs suggesting major neuropsychiatric disorders during the long-term follow-up period.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prescribing Trends in Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Medications Among Pregnant and Postpartum Persons

  Obstetrics and Gynecology · 2026-01-08

  articleOpen access

  With rising obesity rates and increasing glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) use, understanding perinatal prescribing patterns is important. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to examine semaglutide and tirzepatide prescribing among pregnant patients in the United States from 2019 to 2024. We analyzed prescriptions during the year before and after delivery, grouping deliveries into 6-month periods and applying segmented linear regression with data-driven change-point detection to identify prescribing-trend shifts. Prevalence of GLP-1 RA prescribing increased from 0.2 to 6.4 per 1,000 deliveries predelivery and from 0.3 to 14.6 per 1,000 deliveries postdelivery, with significant prescribing change points indicating accelerated prescribing in June 2022 for the predelivery period and in March 2021 for the postdelivery period. These findings suggest rapid adoption of GLP-1 RAs in the perinatal period and underscore the need for evidence-based safety data for these medications.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Episodic Future Thinking as an Intervention for Alcohol Use Disorder: Effects on Delay Discounting and Real-World Alcohol Consumption

  Research Square · 2026-04-03

  preprintOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Prevalence of pediatric cannabidiol prescribing in the United States

  World Journal of Pediatrics · 2026-03-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Health Care Utilization Following First-Documented Trichotillomania Diagnosis in Adults: A Propensity Score–Matched Cohort Study

  SSRN Electronic Journal · 2026-01-01

  preprintOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherDOI

• An EPIC transition: Rapid conversion of a measurement feedback system in behavioral health

  Digital Health · 2025-05-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Measurement-based care (MBC), while an evidence-based clinical practice, can be difficult to integrate into behavioral healthcare settings. Even when MBC has been successfully implemented in an organization, there are many challenges that create a need for rapid adaptation. As measurement feedback systems (MFSs) are increasingly hosted on dynamic digital platforms, there is always a risk of technological changes and adaptations, whether the system is prepared for them or not. This point of view is focused on managing organizational changes to continue use of MBC through a case example in adult behavioral healthcare. A hospital policy change, informed by financial considerations, led to the rapid de-implementation of the external MFS platform in favor of a system integrated into the electronic health record (EHR). Our team responsively developed a plan for maintaining MBC through this transition including written guidelines and face-to-face training to support clinical staff, while determining the best way to maintain research gains and collect data in the EHR. This manuscript discusses the challenges in switching MBC platforms and the downstream consequences of this policy change from clinical, training, and research perspectives.

  PublisherDOI

• Physiological and perceptual effects of GLP-1 receptor agonists during alcohol consumption in people with obesity: a pilot study

  medRxiv · 2025-04-26 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  Abstract Any increase in alcohol use is associated with an increase in risk of illness and mortality and consequences of chronic alcohol use include cancer, hypertension, heart and liver disease, and Alcohol Use Disorder. Glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists (GLP-1RAs) are effective anti-glycemic and weight-loss medications with a strong safety record. There is substantial preclinical evidence and mounting retrospective and prospective randomized controlled trial evidence that GLP-1RAs could be effective for reducing alcohol consumption. However, the mechanism by which GLP-1RAs reduce alcohol intake remains unclear. While medications that reduce alcohol intake such as naltrexone and acamprosate have central nervous system action, disulfiram reduces alcohol intake through peripheral mechanisms. Here, we test whether GLP- 1RAs alter alcohol’s peripheral pharmacokinetics as a potential mechanism of action for their alcohol intake suppressive effects. In this pilot study, twenty participants with obesity in the GLP-1RA or control group consumed a challenge dose of alcohol, and we measured breath alcohol (BrAC) and the subjective effects of alcohol. We observed a delayed rise in BrAC and subjective effects in the GLP-1RA group as compared to controls, that was not explained by nausea. These data provide preliminary evidence that GLP-1RAs could act through peripheral mechanisms to suppress alcohol intake.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Driven by Aspects of Ritual Addiction: A Case Report and Review of Literature

  Psychopharmacology Bulletin · 2025-08-12

  articleOpen accessSenior author
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The prevalence of comorbidities in people with psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (2013–2023)

  Epilepsy & Behavior · 2025-04-17 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• New-Onset Psychotic Symptoms Following Abrupt Buprenorphine/ Naloxone Discontinuation in a Female Patient with Bipolar Disorder: A Case Report

  Psychopharmacology Bulletin · 2025-08-12 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Buprenorphine and naloxone (Suboxone) is a combination medication-assisted treatment (MAT) for opioid use disorder. MAT withdrawal-induced psychosis is a rare clinical presentation. To our best knowledge, only three reports have summarized the characteristic manifestations of buprenorphine withdrawal psychosis, yet all of them were male. In this case report, we present a 41-year-old female patient with bipolar disorder and comorbid substance use disorder who developed new-onset psychosis and relapse of manic symptoms following abrupt discontinuation of Suboxone. Manic and psychotic symptoms remitted after a short-term hospitalization with the treatment of an antipsychotic and a mood stabilizer. In addition to discussing this case presentation and treatment approach, we review existing literature and discuss possible underlying mechanisms to enhance understanding of this clinical phenomenon.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Yezhe Lin

  43 shared

• Ching-Fang Sun

  Seattle Children's Hospital

  37 shared

• Robert S. McNamara

  Brown University

  27 shared

• Ehsan Samarbafzadeh

  Carilion Clinic

  22 shared

• Virginia C. O’Brien

  Carilion Clinic

  22 shared

• Tricia Lemelle

  19 shared

• Rajdip Barman

  19 shared

• Elham Rahmani

  Lethbridge Research and Development Centre

  19 shared

Labs

• Communications TeamPI

Education

• Residency, Psychiatry

  University of Florida

• MD, Medical School

  Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science

  1997

• Hon BSc, Biology and Psychology, Science

  McMaster University

  1993

Awards & honors

• Virginia’s Top Doctors List (2024)
• Elected to the Alpha Omega Alpha society (2024)
• Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine Research Fa…
• VTCSOM AOA Nominee (2021)
• VTCSOM Research Domain Mentor Award (2021)