Michael Otto

About

Michael W. Otto, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Psychological and Brain Sciences department at Boston University and serves as the Director of the Translational Research Program. His career has focused on developing and validating new psychosocial treatments for mood, anxiety, and substance use disorders. His work includes a translational research agenda investigating brain-behavior relationships in therapeutic learning. Dr. Otto's research also emphasizes health-behavior promotion, including investigations of addictive behaviors, medication adherence, sleep, and exercise. With over 25 years of continuous funding from NIH, he has published more than 500 articles, chapters, and books related to his research interests. Recognized as a top producer in clinical empirical literature and an ISI Highly Cited Researcher, he has received numerous awards including the Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the American Psychological Association, the 2024 Outstanding Researcher award from the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies, and the Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for excellence in mentoring. Dr. Otto has served as past President of the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies and the American Psychological Association Division 12, and his service has been recognized with awards such as the Outstanding Service Award from ABCT. He is a regular provider of continuing education workshops across the United States, has been a frequent…

Research topics

• Medicine
• Psychology
• Political Science
• Virology
• Internal medicine
• Clinical psychology
• Library science
• Marketing
• Gerontology
• Business

Selected publications

• COVID-19 vaccine acceptance: influential roles of political party and religiosity

  Psychology Health & Medicine · 2021 · 91 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  Given recent declines in US vaccination rates and the emergence of COVID-19 vaccines, identifying sociodemographic influencers of vaccine willingness holds importance for developing effective public health campaigns aimed at enhancing nationwide COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. The present study utilized a hierarchical binary logistic regression model to assess demographic variables (age, gender, race/ethnicity, pre-existing medical conditions), political party membership, religious affiliation, lev…

  DOI

• Efficacy of digital cognitive behavioral therapy for moderate‐to‐severe symptoms of generalized anxiety disorder: A randomized controlled trial

  Depression and Anxiety · 2020 · 86 citations

  BACKGROUND: Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is an efficacious intervention for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). Digital CBT may provide a scalable means of delivering CBT at a population level. We investigated the efficacy of a novel digital CBT program in those with GAD for outcomes of anxiety, worry, depressive symptoms, sleep difficulty, wellbeing, and participant-specific quality of life. METHODS: This online, two-arm parallel-group superiority randomized controlled trial compared digi…

  DOI

• Assessing BDNF as a mediator of the effects of exercise on depression

  Journal of Psychiatric Research · 2020 · 82 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  DOI

• Correlates of Functioning in Bipolar Disorder

  Psychopharmacology Bulletin · 2025-08-12 · 15 citations

  article

  Objectives: Our primary aim was to describe unique correlates of functioning in bipolar disorder (BD). Experimental Design: The study included the first 500 patients enrolled in the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder (STEP-BD). Patients were 41.9 ± 12.7 years old, and diagnosed with bipolar I, II, or NOS, verified by structured interview. Overall functionality was determined by the Range of Impaired Function Tool (LIFE-RIFT). Stepwise multiple regression analysis teste…

  PublisherDOI

• Cost-effectiveness of automated digital CBT (Daylight) for generalized anxiety disorder: A Markov simulation model in the United States

  PLOS mental health. · 2024-08-26 · 4 citations

  articleOpen accessCorresponding

  This study examines the cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit of a fully automated smartphone-delivered digital cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention for Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). In a simulated Markov model, 100,000 individuals with GAD were studied under one of five (n = 20,000 per arm) treatments (digital CBT [Daylight], individual CBT, group CBT, pharmacotherapy, or no GAD treatment). Model inputs were determined from the literature and included direct treatment costs and d…

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• Rescuing Cognitive and Emotional Regulatory Processes to Aid Smoking Prevention

  NIH · $459k · 2016–2019

• Improving Therapeutic Learning in Depression: Proof of Concept

  NIH · $452k · 2014–2017

• NIH Grant R25MH084784

  NIH · $158k · 2013

Frequent coauthors

• Mark H. Pollack

  331 shared

• Jasper A. J. Smits

  The University of Texas at Austin

  180 shared

• Andrew A. Nierenberg

  118 shared

• Steven A. Safren

  University of Miami

  115 shared

• Naomi M. Simon

  108 shared

• Thilo Deckersbach

  Diploma Hochschule

  105 shared

• David J. Miklowitz

  102 shared

• Stefan G. Hofmann

  Philipps University of Marburg

  101 shared

Labs

• Developmental SciencePI

Education

• Ph.D.

  University of New Mexico

Awards & honors

• Distinguished Scientific Contributions to Clinical Psycholog…
• 2024 Outstanding Researcher award from the Association for B…
• 2019 Elizabeth Hurlock Beckman Award for excellence in mento…
• 2023 Toy Caldwell-Colbert Award for Distinguished Educator i…
• Outstanding Service Award from ABCT (2010)

Similar researchers at Boston University

• Michael Hasselmoh-95
• Chantal Sternh-80
• Rosemary Toomeyh-60