Eric T. Monson, MD, PhD

Eric Monson, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, is a trained computational geneticist and child and adolescent psychiatrist who conducts research into the intersection of psychological trauma and suicide. His laboratory develops new approaches to classify individuals with prior trauma exposure and for the characterization of clinical and genetic risk factors unique to this population. These approaches will support the development of more impactful and efficient prevention and intervention strategies within youth with prior trauma and provide insights to prevent suicide, in general. The approaches utilize a wide array of computational and statistical models to evaluate large sets of genetic, demographic, and clinical data. This work is made possible through a unique resource: the Utah Suicide Mortality Risk Study (USMRS). The USMRS has demographic, clinical, and genetic data on over 10,000 individuals who have died from suicide, allowing unprecedented evaluation of suicide and associated outcomes. Dr. Monson earned his medical degree at the University of Iowa, Carver College of Medicine, and earned his PhD in genetics, computational subtrack, at the Interdisciplinary Graduate Program in Genetics at the University of Iowa. He also completed his Adult Psychiatry Residency (Research Track, serving as an elected chief resident in his final year) and a fellowship in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Utah.