Anahita Bassir Nia, MD

Anahita Bassir Nia, MD, is an Addiction Psychiatrist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine.

Dr. Bassir Nia has focused her research on translational science to understand the neurobiology of stress-related psychiatric disorders such as substance use disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ultimate goal of her research is to identify novel biological targets in treating these disorders. She received her career development award for studying the endogenous cannabinoid system (eCB) in opioid use disorder (OUD) and conducted brain imaging studies to investigate the availability of cannabinoid receptors in individuals with various stress-related disorders, such as PTSD and OUD. She is interested in the impact of early-life adversity on brain development and its consequences on mental health later in life. She is also interested in the potential use of psychedelics in the treatment of substance use disorders and PTSD. She investigates the potential effects of psychedelics N, N-dimethyltryptamine (DMT), in the treatment of alcohol use disorder (AUD) and its underlying mechanism, such as changes in neuroplasticity. She is also interested in understanding the prosocial effects of psychedelics, such as MDMA and Psilocybin.