Dr. Coughlin is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern (UTSW) Medical Center and the Peter O’Donnell Jr. Brain Institute, where she directs the Molecular Imaging in Psychiatry Program. She is also Chief of the Division of General Psychiatry and holds the Communities Foundation of Texas, Inc. Chair in Brain Science. Dr. Coughlin has clinical expertise in the diagnosis and treatment of mood disorders, previously serving as director of the Johns Hopkins Young Adult Affective Disorders Inpatient Unit and Outpatient Consultation Clinic. She now serves as a psychiatrist within the Transitional Age Youth Clinic, a specialty service for young adults in the UTSW Multispecialty Outpatient Psychiatry Center.

Dr. Coughlin’s research uses positron emission tomography (PET) imaging to understand how the brain’s immune response shapes neurologic and psychiatric conditions. Her brain imaging findings have been published in peer-reviewed journals with high impact, such as JAMA Neurology, JAMA Network Open, and Molecular Psychiatry. Her work is funded largely by the National Institutes of Health and the generosity of several foundations such as the Brain Behavior Research Foundation, One Mind, and the Hope for Depression Foundation.