Rajita Sinha PhD
Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry and Professor in the Child Study Center and of Neurobiology; Director, Yale Interdisciplinary Stress Center; Chief, Psychology Section in Psychiatry; Deputy Director, Yale Center for Clinical Investigation (Yale CTSA)
Research Interests
Stress; Relaxation; Chronic Disease; Addiction; Addictive behaviors; Clinical Prevention
Research Summary
Clinical neurobiology of stress and relaxation, emotion dysregulation, and their effects on desire and drug craving and addictive behaviors, such as, drinking, eating and drug use. Mechanisms underlying sex differences in stress neurobiology, and interaction with motivational processes and effects on health outcomes is integral to this research area. The neurobiology of relaxation and its effect on resilience and chronic stress and emotion dysregulation is also being studied. An additional interest is in developing treatments to target stress related relapse in addictive behaviors. We’ve developed and validated a laboratory model of stress-induced and hedonic cue-induced craving and lapse to addictive behaviors. The laboratory model characterizes the drug craving state and is being applied to test new pharmacological and psychological interventions to reduce craving and drug use behaviors. Individual difference variables such as gender, genetics, early trauma, chronic stress, prefrontal cognitive functioning that may modulate responses to stress and urges are also being studied.
Selected Publications
- Arnsten AFT, Mazure C, Sinha R. This is your brain in meltdown. Scientific American, 2012, April, 48-53.
- Sinha R, Fox HC, Hong KI, Hansen J, Tuit K, Kreek MJ (2011) Effects of Adrenal Sensitivity, Stress- and Cue-Induced Craving, and Anxiety on Subsequent Alcohol Relapse and Treatment Outcomes. Arch Gen Psychiatry. May 2. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 21536969.
- Potenza MN, Hong KI, Lacadie CM, Fulbright RK, Tuit KL, Sinha R. Neural correlates of stress-induced and cue-induced drug craving: influences of sex and cocaine dependence. Am J Psychiatry. 2012 Apr 1;169(4):406-14.
- Ansell EB, Rando K, Tuit K, Guarnaccia J, Sinha R. Cumulative Adversity and Smaller Gray Matter Volume in Medial Prefrontal, Anterior Cingulate, and Insula Regions. Biol Psychiatry. 2012 Jan 2. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 22218286.
- Sinha R, Garcia M, Paliwal P, Kreek MJ, Rounsaville BJ. Stress-induced cocaine craving and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal responses are predictive of cocaine relapse outcomes. Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2006 Mar;63(3):324-31. PubMed PMID: 16520439.
- Sinha R, Talih M, Malison R, Cooney N, Anderson GM, Kreek MJ. Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympatho-adreno-medullary responses during stress-induced and drug cue-induced cocaine craving states. Psychopharmacology (Berl). 2003 Oct;170(1):62-72. Epub 2003 Jul 4. PubMed PMID:12845411.
- Li CS, Huang C, Constable RT, Sinha R. Imaging response inhibition in a stop-signal task: neural correlates independent of signal monitoring and post-response processing. J Neurosci. 2006 Jan 4;26(1):186-92. PubMed PMID: 16399686.
- Sinha, R (2008). Chronic stress, drug use and vulnerability to addiction. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences: Addiction Reviews, 1141: 105-130
- Li CS, Sinha R. Inhibitory control and emotional stress regulation: neuroimaging evidence for frontal-limbic dysfunction in psycho-stimulant addiction. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2008;32(3):581-97. Epub 2007 Nov 28. Review.PubMed PMID: 18164058.
