Dr. Melissa Lopez-Larson
Lopez - Larson & Associates
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Meet Our Team

Dr. Melissa Lopez-Larson

Melissa Lopez-Larson, MD

After graduating from the University of Cincinnati School of Medicine in 2001, Dr. Melissa Lopez-Larson completed her adult psychiatry residency at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in Boston, Massachusetts, and then two successive fellowships at Cambridge Hospital (Harvard Medical School) in Cambridge, Massachusetts including a child and adolescent fellowship and a research fellowship. Additionally, she has completed an Integrative Medicine fellowship in 2017 and has additional training in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy. 

Sharing her 20+ years of diverse knowledge, unique skills and complimentary mind-body techniques, she opened Lopez-Larson & Associates to inspire patients in discovering the right support and tools to achieve mental wellness.

With an extensive research background, Dr. Melissa has published original papers covering various topics such as brain development, ADHD, mood disorders, and substance abuse. She has also presented at numerous conferences nationwide and has written two books including, “My Child is not Depressed Anymore: Treatment Strategies That Will Launch Your College Student to Academic and Personal Success” and “The Confident Parent: A Recipe of Hope for Struggling Kids and Striving Parents.”

She recently relocated to Cleveland Ohio to be closer to family and friends with who she enjoys being outdoors, golfing, cooking and watching all things sports.

Dr. Melissa’s “Integrated Systems Approach to Wellbeing”

Dr. Melissa MD has a successful and integrative clinic that sets itself apart from traditional psychiatric practice methods.

Based on extensive research and clinical experiences, she has developed a clinical practice focused on “treating the whole person.” Dr. Melissa augments classic psychiatric services with evidence-based complementary treatments and a holistic approach to the treatment of mental health related issues. She believes with the right support, knowledge and tools (such as diet, exercise, meditation, and nutrition) and other therapeutic modalities, people can navigate their own way to wellness. Her treatment offerings range from basic wellness education, therapy and medication to more advance techniques such as TMS and ketamine psychotherapy. 

Dr. Melissa inspires and encourages patients to work towards developing a patient-centered, individualized mental health and physical wellness plan.  She meets each patient “where they are at” and offers a suite of wellness techniques and treatment options for children, adolescent, and adult patients.  What you can expect when meeting with Dr. Melissa includes a thorough mental health assessment, an evaluation of contributing physical health issues and social stressors and will provide a wide-range of treatment options and recommendations on key items such as nutrition, exercise, sleep, meditation, and other mind-body approaches. She essentially will partner with you on developing a mind-body wellness plan to help you overcome current and past issues and will incorporate wellness strategies that you can use over your lifetime to reduce or prevent additional mental health issues in the future.

  • Authoring or co-authoring of twenty-seven peer-reviewed articles, in such journals as the Journal of Child Adolescent Psychopharmacology, Biological Psychiatry, the Harvard Review of Psychiatry, Brain Imaging Behavior, American Journal of Neuroradiology, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Behavioral Brain Research, Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation, Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, and the Journal of Affective Disorders.
  • Serving as Principal Investigator or Co-investigator/Clinician on eleven grant-funded projects funded by, inter alia, the National Institute of Mental Health, National Institute on Drug Abuse, the National Institute of Health, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, from 2008 through 2016.
  • Author of 1 books entitled My Child’s not depressed anymore -Treatment Strategies That Will Launch Your College Student to Academic and Personal Success; and coauthor of book chapter in fMRI Clinical Applications to Psychiatry. In Scott Faro and Feroze Mohamed (Eds.), Functional Neuroradiology: Principles and Clinical Applications.
  • Creating and/or participating in 50+ conference presentations, for conferences sponsored by such organizations as Harvard Medical School, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the International Society of Magnetic Resonance in Medicine, the Society for Neuroscience, the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology, the American Society of Suicidology, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the College on Problems of Drug Dependence.
  • Serving as a reviewer for several peer reviewed journals: Biological Psychiatry, Bipolar Disorders, Brain Connectivity, Frontiers in Psychiatry, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Neuroimaging: Psychiatry, and JAMA Psychiatry. Serving as Associate Director, Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory, of the Brain Institute of the University of Utah.
  • Accumulating over eight years of Clinical, Laboratory, Integrative Approach, and small group teaching experience of residents and post-doctoral fellows.

  1. DelBello MP, Lopez-Larson MP, Getz GE, Strakowski SM (2000). Treatment of schizoaffective disorder with divalproex sodium. Schizophr Res, 46(1), 77-9.
  2. DelBello MP, Lopez-Larson MP, Soutullo CA, Strakowski SM (2001). Effects of race on psychiatric diagnosis of hospitalized adolescents: a retrospective chart review. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol, 11(1), 95-103.
  3. Lopez-Larson MP, DelBello MP, Zimmerman ME, Schwiers ML, Strakowski SM (2002). Regional prefrontal gray and white matter abnormalities in bipolar disorder. Biol Psychiatry, 52(2), 93-100.
  4. Lopez-Larson MP, Frazier JA (2006). Empirical evidence for the use of lithium and anticonvulsants in children with psychiatric disorders. Harv Rev Psychiatry, 14(6), 285-304.
  5. Frazier JA, Hodge SM, Breeze JL, Giuliano AJ, Terry JE, Moore CM, Kennedy DN, Lopez-Larson MP, Caviness VS, Seidman LJ, Zablotsky B, Makris N (2008). Diagnostic and sex effects on limbic volumes in early-onset bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. Schizophr Bull, 34(1), 37-46.
  6. Lopez-Larson MP, Michael E., Terry JA, Breeze JL, Hodge SM, Tang L, Kennedy DN, Moore C, Makris N, Caviness VS, Frazier JA (Feb 2009). Subcortical Differences Among Youths with ADHD Compared to those with Bipolar Disorder with and without ADHD. J Child Adolesc Psychopharmacol, 19(1), 31-9.
  7. Anderson JS, Ferguson MA, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd D (Nov 2010). Topographic Maps of Multisensory Attention. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 107(46), 20110-4.
  8. Churchwell JC, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd, DA (Dec 2010). Altered frontal cortical volume and decision making in adolescent cannabis users. Front Psychol, 1, 1-8.
  9. Lopez-Larson MP, Breeze JA, Kennedy DN, Hodge SM, Tang L, Moore C, Giuliano AJ, Makris N, Caviness VS, Frazier JA (Dec 2010). Age-Related Changes in the Corpus Callosum in Early-Onset Bipolar Disorder Assessed Using Volumetric and Cross-Sectional Measurements. Brain Imaging Behav, 4(3-4), 220-31.
  10. Anderson JS, Ferguson MA, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd D (Mar 2011). Reproducibility of Single-Subject Functional Connectivity Measurements. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol, 32(3), 548-55.
  11. Lopez-Larson MP, Anderson JS, Ferguson MA, Yurgelun-Todd D (2011). Local Brain Connectivity and Associations with Gender and Age. Dev Cogn Neurosci, 1(2), 187-197.
  12. Anderson JS, Druzgal TJ, Lopez-Larson MP, Jeong EK, Desai K, Yurgelun-Todd D (June 2011). Network Anticorrelations After Global Regression Show Direct Variation with Network Size. Hum Brain Mapp, 32(6), 919-34.
  13. Lopez-Larson MP, Bogorodzki P, Rogowska J, McGlade E, King JB, Terry J, Yurgelun-Todd D (2011). Altered prefrontal and insular cortical thickness in adolescent marijuana users. Behav Brain Res, 220(1), 164-72.
  14. Yurgelun-Todd DA, Bueler CE, McGlade EC, Churchwell JC, Brenner LA, Lopez-Larson MP (2011). Neuroimaging Correlates of Traumatic Brain Injury and Suicidal Behavior. J Head Trauma Rehabil, 26(4), 276-289.
  15. Anderson JS, Ferguson MA, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd D (2011). Connectivity Gradients Between the Default Mode and Attention Control Networks. Brain Connect, 1(2), 147-57.
  16. Anderson JS, Dhatt HS, Ferguson MA, Lopez-Larson MP, Schrock LE, House PA, Yurgelun-Todd D (2011). Functional connectivity targeting for deep brain stimulation in essential tremor. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol, 32(10), 1963-8.
  17. Churchwell JC, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd DA (2012). Orbitofrontal cortex and neuromaturation: a gateway to risk? Biol Psychiatry, 71(8), 664-65.
  18. Lopez-Larson MP, Rogowska J, Bogorodzki P, Bueler CE, McGlade E, Yurgelun-Todd, D (2012). Cortico-cerebellar abnormalities in adolescents with heavy marijuana use. Psychiatr Res Neuroimaging, 202(3), 224-32.
  19. Lopez-Larson MP, King JB, Terry J, McGlade EC, Yurgelun-Todd D (2012). Reduced insular volume in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Psychiatr Res Neuroimaging, 204(1), 32-9.
  20. Lopez-Larson MP, King JB, McGlade E, Bueler E, Stoeckel A, Epstein DJ, Yurgelun-Todd D (2013). Enlarged thalamic volumes and increased fractional anisotropy in the thalamic radiations in Veterans with suicide behaviors. Front Psychiatry, 4(83).
  21. King JB, Yurgelun-Todd D, Stoeckel A, DiMuzio JM, Lopez-Larson MP. Sex differences in white matter integrity in youths with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a pilot study. Front Neurosci. 2015 Jul 3;9:232. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2015.00232.
  22. Lopez-Larson MP, Rogowska J, Yurgelun-Todd D. Aberrant orbitofrontal connectivity in marijuana smoking adolescents. Dev Cogn Neurosci. 2015 Dec;16:54-62. doi: 10.1016/j.dcn.2015.08.002.
  23. King JB, Lopez-Larson MP, Yurgelun-Todd DA. Mean cortical curvature reflects cytoarchitecture restructuring in mild traumatic brain injury. Neuroimage Clin. 2016 Jan 6;11:81-9. doi: 10.1016/j.nicl.2016.01.003.
  24. Lopez-Larson, M. P., Shah, L. M., Weeks, H. R., King, J. B., Mallik, A. K., Yurgelun-Todd, D. A., & Anderson, J. S. (2017). Abnormal Functional Connectivity Between Default and Salience Networks in Pediatric Bipolar Disorder. Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging, 2(1), 85-93.doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpsc.2016.10.001.
  25. King JB, Anderson JS, Yurgelun-Todd DA, Subramaniam P, Ehrler MR, Lopez-Larson MP. Decreased anterior cingulate activation in a motor task in youths with bipolar disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry. 2018 Aug;59(8):900-907. doi: 10.1111/jcpp.12875. Epub 2018 Feb 16. PMID: 29451300.
  26. Subramaniam P, Rogowska J, DiMuzio J, Lopez-Larson MP, McGlade E, Yurgelun-Todd D. Orbitofrontal connectivity is associated with depression and anxiety in marijuana-using adolescents. J Affect Disord. 2018 Oct 15;239:234-241. doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2018.07.002. Epub 2018 Jul 3. PMID:30025312
  27. Terry JA, Lopez-Larson MP, Frazier JA (Apr 2009). Magnetic Resonance Imaging Studies in Early Onset Bipolar Disorder: An Updated Review. [Review]. Child Adolesc Psychiatr Clin N Am, 18(2), 421-39.

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