Ilan Harpaz-Rotem, PhD, ABPP
Glenn H. Greenberg Professor of Psychiatry and of PsychologyCards
Appointments
Additional Titles
Director, PTSD Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment
Deputy Director, Evaluation Division at the National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Contact Info
Appointments
Additional Titles
Director, PTSD Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment
Deputy Director, Evaluation Division at the National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Contact Info
Appointments
Additional Titles
Director, PTSD Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment
Deputy Director, Evaluation Division at the National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Contact Info
About
Copy Link
Titles
Glenn H. Greenberg Professor of Psychiatry and of Psychology
Director, PTSD Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment
Positions outside Yale
Deputy Director, Evaluation Division at the National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Biography
Dr. Harpaz-Rotem is a Professor of Psychiatry and of Psychology at Yale University. He is a clinical psychologist who, for many years, has conducted research and provided treatment to individuals exposed to trauma. Dr. Harpaz-Rotem serves as an investigator at the National Center for PTSD, and he also directs the evaluation of VA PTSD treatment programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Northeast Program Evaluation Center, Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, VA Central Office. Research into how to modify traumatic memories and their associated emotions is one of the core questions that guide his work.
Appointments
Psychiatry
ProfessorPrimaryDepartment of Psychology
ProfessorSecondary
Other Departments & Organizations
- Center for Brain & Mind Health
- Department of Psychology
- Harpaz-Rotem Lab
- MR Core
- Psychiatry
- Psychology Section
- VA National Center for PTSD
- VA-Yale Clinical Neurosciences PTSD Research Program
- Wu Tsai Institute
- Yale Ventures
Education & Training
- Postdoc
- NIH NRSA Postdoctoral Fellowship Yale University Department of Psychiatry (2004)
- PhD
- New School for Social Research (2002)
- Clinical training
- University of California at Davis School of Medicine (2002)
- Clinical training
- Albert Einstein School of Medicine Bronx Lebanon Hospital (2001)
- Clinical training
- New York University Medical Center & Bellevue Hospital (2000)
- Clinical training
- Beth Israel Medical Center (1998)
Research
Copy Link
Overview
Medical Research Interests
ORCID
0000-0002-6066-9406- View Lab Website
Harpaz-Rotem PTSD Treatment & Research Lab
Research at a Glance
Yale Co-Authors
Publications Timeline
Research Interests
Jack Tsai
Or Duek, PhD
John Krystal, MD
Tobias Spiller, MD
Robert Pietrzak, PhD, MPH
Ifat Levy, PhD
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Veterans
Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Mental Health Services
Psychotherapy
Depression
Publications
2025
Unraveling PTSD: Symptom Cluster Change During and 1 Year After Veterans’ Residential PTSD Treatment
Gross G, Spiller T, Ben-Zion Z, Rubenstein A, Pietrzak R, Duek O, Hoff R, Harpaz-Rotem I. Unraveling PTSD: Symptom Cluster Change During and 1 Year After Veterans’ Residential PTSD Treatment. Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice And Policy 2025, 17: 1780-1788. PMID: 38990694, DOI: 10.1037/tra0001734.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricConceptsPosttraumatic stress disorderPosttraumatic stress disorder symptom clustersPosttraumatic stress disorder clustersSymptom clustersIntrusive symptomsResidential treatmentTreatment of posttraumatic stress disorderPosttraumatic stress disorder symptomsResidential PTSD treatmentPTSD symptom clustersNovel treatment interventionsDifferential treatment responseReduce symptom severityDifferential patterns of changeAvoidance symptomsPTSD treatmentTreatment gainsStress disorderVeterans AffairsSymptom severityCluster CTreatment interventionsCluster BIndividual symptomsCohort of veteransCannabinoid 1 receptor availability in posttraumatic stress disorder: A positron emission tomography study
Korem N, Bassir Nia A, Hillmer A, D’Souza D, Nabulsi N, Ropchan J, Huang Y, Cosgrove K, Levy I, Pietrzak R, Harpaz-Rotem I. Cannabinoid 1 receptor availability in posttraumatic stress disorder: A positron emission tomography study. Translational Psychiatry 2025, 15: 310. PMID: 40846835, PMCID: PMC12373994, DOI: 10.1038/s41398-025-03519-9.BooksCitationsAltmetricConceptsPathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorderEmotional numbing symptomsCB1R availabilityPosttraumatic stress disorderEndocannabinoid systemStress disorderPositron emission tomographyTrauma-exposed participantsEndocannabinoid system's rolePositron emission tomography studiesCannabinoid receptor 1Emission tomography studiesMulti-faceted disorderFear learningCB1RSymptom expressionHealthy controlsCannabinoidDisordersTomography studiesEmission tomographyPreclinical studiesSymptomsHigher levelsReceptor 1RESET post-traumatic stress disorder: clinical protocol integrating reconsolidation, exposure, short-term emotional transformation
Rubinstein D, Abargil M, Duek O, Harpaz-Rotem I. RESET post-traumatic stress disorder: clinical protocol integrating reconsolidation, exposure, short-term emotional transformation. European Journal Of Psychotraumatology 2025, 16: 2540141. PMID: 40815290, PMCID: PMC12360050, DOI: 10.1080/20008066.2025.2540141.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsPost-traumatic stress disorderCase formulationPost-traumatic stress disorder symptom reductionIntegration of traumatic memoriesIntensive treatment formatLong-term psychotherapyTrauma-focused interventionsPsychodynamic case formulationEvidence-based treatmentsStand-alone interventionTime-efficient interventionMemory reconsolidationPTSD treatmentEmotional processingExposure therapyTreatment formatStress disorderSymptom reductionTrauma processingReconsolidation mechanismsTraumatic memoriesDaily sessionsTherapeutic engagementProlonged exposureSession structureA whole-brain voxel-based analysis of structural abnormalities in PTSD: An ENIGMA-PGC study
See C, Si S, Baird C, Haswell C, Hussain A, Olff M, Veltman D, Frijling J, van Zuiden M, Koch S, Nawijn L, Wang L, Zhu Y, Li G, Neria Y, Zhu X, Suarez-Jimenez B, Zilcha-Mano S, Lazarov A, Stevens J, Ressler K, Fani N, Jovanovic T, van Rooij S, Kaufman M, Lebois L, Rosso I, Olson E, Baker J, Sponheim S, Disner S, Davenport N, Etkin A, Maron-Katz A, Stein M, Shenton M, Stein D, Ipser J, Koopowitz S, Seedat S, du Plessis S, van den Heuvel L, Lissek S, Berg H, Straube T, Hofman D, Baugh L, Forster G, Simons R, Simons J, Magnotta V, Fercho K, Wang X, Cotton A, O'Leary E, Xie H, Grupe D, Nitschke J, Davidson R, Larson C, deRoon-Cassini T, Tomas C, Fitzgerald J, Blackford J, Olatunji B, Gordon E, May G, Nelson S, Lanius R, Théberge J, Densmore M, Neufeld R, Abdallah C, Averill C, Harpaz-Rotem I, Levy I, Krystal J, Geuze E, van Lutterveld R, Dennis E, Tate D, Cifu D, Walker W, Wilde E, van der Wee N, Vermeiren R, van der Werff S, McLaughlin K, Sambrook K, Peverill M, Radua J, Salminen L, Jahanshad N, Thomopoulos S, James A, Valmaggia L, Thompson P, Morey R, Kempton M. A whole-brain voxel-based analysis of structural abnormalities in PTSD: An ENIGMA-PGC study. European Psychiatry 2025, 68: e97. PMID: 40692500, PMCID: PMC12344465, DOI: 10.1192/j.eurpsy.2025.10062.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsPosttraumatic stress disorder patientsPosttraumatic stress disorderAssociated with GM volumeWhole-brain voxel-based analysisVoxel-based morphometryRegional brain volumesGM volumeBrain volumeDepression severityWhole-brainPosttraumatic stress disorder severityWhole-brain statistical mapsCerebellar WM volumeTrauma-exposed controlsStructural neuroimaging scansSuperior frontal gyrusGray matterStatistical mapsVoxel-wise differencesAnalysis of structural abnormalitiesFrontal gyrusTrauma exposureMemory processesStress disorderWhite matterThe Transdiagnostic Connectome Project: an open dataset for studying brain-behavior relationships in psychiatry
Chopra S, Cocuzza C, Lawhead C, Ricard J, Labache L, Patrick L, Kumar P, Rubenstein A, Moses J, Chen L, Blankenbaker C, Gillis B, Germine L, Harpaz-Rotem I, Yeo B, Baker J, Holmes A. The Transdiagnostic Connectome Project: an open dataset for studying brain-behavior relationships in psychiatry. Scientific Data 2025, 12: 923. PMID: 40456751, PMCID: PMC12130183, DOI: 10.1038/s41597-025-04895-z.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsTask-based functional MRIHigh-resolution anatomical scansBrain-behavior relationshipsHealthy comparison groupFeatures of brain functionFunctional network organizationClinically relevant symptomsPsychiatric illnessFunctional MRINeuroimaging dataResting-stateBrain functionClinical neuroscienceCognitive AssessmentBehavioral dataConnectome ProjectAnatomical scansComparison groupDiagnostic criteriaNetwork organizationRelevant symptomsPsychiatryActivating effectIndividualsTransdiagnostic445. Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Emotional Stimuli Processing in PTSD Participants
Basol E, Ben-Zion Z, Paterson M, Samonek K, Qu Y, Joormann J, Harpaz-Rotem I. 445. Neural and Behavioral Correlates of Emotional Stimuli Processing in PTSD Participants. Biological Psychiatry 2025, 97: s280. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.02.683.Peer-Reviewed Original Research28. "Taking Chat-GPT to Therapy": Assessing and Alleviating State Anxiety in Large Language Models
Ben-Zion Z, Witte K, Jagadish A, Duek O, Harpaz-Rotem I, Khorsandian M, Burrer A, Seifritz E, Homan P, Schulz E, Spiller T. 28. "Taking Chat-GPT to Therapy": Assessing and Alleviating State Anxiety in Large Language Models. Biological Psychiatry 2025, 97: s106-s107. DOI: 10.1016/j.biopsych.2025.02.265.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchAssessing and alleviating state anxiety in large language models
Ben-Zion Z, Witte K, Jagadish A, Duek O, Harpaz-Rotem I, Khorsandian M, Burrer A, Seifritz E, Homan P, Schulz E, Spiller T. Assessing and alleviating state anxiety in large language models. Npj Digital Medicine 2025, 8: 132. PMID: 40033130, PMCID: PMC11876565, DOI: 10.1038/s41746-025-01512-6.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricConnectome-Based Predictive Modeling of PTSD Development Among Recent Trauma Survivors
Ben-Zion Z, Simon A, Rosenblatt M, Korem N, Duek O, Liberzon I, Shalev A, Hendler T, Levy I, Harpaz-Rotem I, Scheinost D. Connectome-Based Predictive Modeling of PTSD Development Among Recent Trauma Survivors. JAMA Network Open 2025, 8: e250331. PMID: 40063028, PMCID: PMC11894499, DOI: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2025.0331.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchCitationsAltmetricMeSH Keywords and ConceptsConceptsConnectome-based predictive modelingPosttraumatic stress disorderClinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5Months post-traumaFunctional magnetic resonance imagingTrauma survivorsDSM-5Post-traumaPosttraumatic stress disorder symptom clustersPosttraumatic stress disorder symptom severityPosttraumatic stress disorder symptom trajectoriesPosttraumatic stress disorder severityTask-based fMRI dataAnterior default modePredictive of symptomsFollow-up assessmentDevelopment of effective personalized treatmentsComprehensive clinical assessmentClinician-AdministeredNeurobiological indicesPosttraumatic psychopathologyHyperarousal symptomsCentral executiveTrauma exposureSalience networkMEMORY RELATED STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL NEURAL CHANGES FOLLOWING A SINGLE INFUSION OF KETAMINE IN PTSD
Harpaz-Rotem *, Duek O, Korem N, Krystal J. MEMORY RELATED STRUCTURAL AND FUNCTIONAL NEURAL CHANGES FOLLOWING A SINGLE INFUSION OF KETAMINE IN PTSD. The International Journal Of Neuropsychopharmacology 2025, 28: i38-i38. PMCID: PMC11814760, DOI: 10.1093/ijnp/pyae059.066.Peer-Reviewed Original ResearchConceptsPost-retrieval extinctionInfusion of ketamineIntravenous infusion of ketamineTrauma memoriesTraumatic memoriesFear responsesSs' responsesAssociated with decreased connectivityAmygdala-vmPFC connectivityTrauma-focused psychotherapyTreatment of PTSDNMDA receptor antagonistPre-post treatmentAmygdala activationLower amygdalaReconsolidation windowUncinate fasciculusAssessed before treatmentKetamine administrationMemory learningNaturalistic stimuliLabile stateAmygdalaPTSDExtinction process
Clinical Trials
Current Trials
Eligibility for Participation in Neuroimaging Studies
HIC ID2000027842RoleSub InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date12/31/2023Recruiting ParticipantsUsing Neuroimaging to track symptom change in PTSD treatment
HIC ID2000025892RolePrincipal InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date07/31/2029Recruiting ParticipantsImaging mGluR5 and synaptic density in psychiatric disorders
HIC ID2000020186RoleSub InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date01/31/2018Recruiting ParticipantsGenderBothAge18 years - 80 yearsIntensive 7-day Treatment for PTSD Combining Ketamine With Exposure Therapy (PTSD)
HIC ID1509016530RolePrincipal InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date08/01/2030Recruiting ParticipantsGenderBothAge21 years - 70 yearsImaging Cannabinoid Receptors Using Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Scanning
HIC ID1005006735RoleSub InvestigatorPrimary Completion Date12/31/2016Recruiting ParticipantsGenderMaleAge18 years - 55 years
Academic Achievements & Community Involvement
Copy Link
Honors
honor Distinguished Mentorship Award
11/11/2022National AwardInternational Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS)DetailsUnited States
News & Links
Copy Link
News
- October 20, 2025
Understanding PTSD and Dissociation in Wartime: Direct and Indirect Trauma Exposure
- September 18, 2025
Yale Scientists Seek to Uncover Neural and Genomic Mechanisms that Drive Anxiety
- March 10, 2025Source: Yale News
Machine Learning Model Predicts PTSD Symptom Severity Over Time
- September 09, 2024Source: Yale News
Endocannabinoids Are Associated With Emotional Numbing in PTSD
Get In Touch
Copy Link
Contacts
Psychiatry
300 George Street
New Haven, CT 06511
United States
Locations
300 George Street
Academic Office
Rm 836
New Haven, CT 06511