Our Team
Collaborators
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Research Psychiatrist, VA National Center for PTSD
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 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... Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Dr. Cortes-Briones is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Yale University, Technical Director of MEG Imaging for Neuropsychiatric Disorders (MIND) Center at the West Haven VA Healthcare System, and a member of the Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY) as well as the Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids (YC-SCAN2). His primary research interests include understanding the changes in brain dynamics underlying the acute effects of psychoactive substances such as tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and ketamine, as well as auditory verbal hallucinations in individuals with schizophrenia. His current work focuses on applying machine learning algorithms to transcribe inner speech and auditory verbal hallucinations from their electrophysiological correlates, reconstructing fetal electroencephalographic (EEG) data from... Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Assistant Chief of Inpatient Psychiatry, Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU), Psychiatry; Assistant Director for Research Affairs, Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit (CNRU), Psychiatry
Dr. De Aquino is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and Assistant Director for Research Affairs at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Unit. In addition to treating persons with substance use disorders and co-occurring medical and psychiatric disorders, he combines behavioral pharmacology, computerized psychophysical techniques, and clinical trial methods to develop novel therapeutics for pain and addiction.Vikram Sodhi ’92 Professor of Psychiatry; Director Schizophrenia Neuropharmacology Research Group at Yale (SNRGY); Director, Neurobiological Studies Unit, VACHS; Director, VA-CMHC Schizophrenia Research Clinic; Director, Yale Center for the Science of Cannabis and Cannabinoids ; Chair, Research and Development Committee, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Deepak Cyril D’Souza, MD is a Professor of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine and a staff psychiatrist at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS). He received his medical degree from John’s National Academy of Health Sciences, Bangalore, India in 1986 and completed his psychiatric residency at State University of New York Downstate in 1992 followed by a postdoctoral fellowship in Psychopharmacology and Neurosciences at Yale University School of Medicine. He then joined the faculty in the Dept. of Psychiatry at Yale and VA Connecticut Healthcare System. He is an active clinician, teacher and researcher, 30 years of experience. Clinical Administration: He directs the Neuropsychiatry Program at VA Connecticut Healthcare System, the clinical service that cares for veterans with serious mental illnesses including psychotic disorders, mood disorders and personality... Professor of Psychiatry and of Psychology; Director, PTSD Advanced Fellowship in Mental Illness Research and Treatment; Deputy Director, Evaluation Division at the National Center for PTSD, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
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.Associate Professor of Pediatrics (General Pediatrics); Co-Director, XR Pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine, General Pediatrics; Co-Director/Co-Founder, Pediatrics
Kimberly Hieftje, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at Yale Pediatrics and co-director/co-founder of XRPeds and the Yale Center for Immersive Technologies in Pediatrics, which focuses on the development and evaluation of videogame interventions using extended reality (virtual reality, augmented reality, etc) for health prevention and promotion, behavior change, and education in adolescents and young adults. She is currently involved in the development and testing of several health behavior change XR and game-based interventions and has published frequently on developing, evaluating, and implementing serious games. She has worked on games that have focused on topics including vaping/e-c-cigarette prevention, tobacco use prevention, risk reduction in adolescents, HIV/STI prevention, HIV/STI testing, empowering girls around healthy decision making, bystander intervention, LGBTQ... Associate Professor of Pediatrics (Hematology/Oncology); Director, Pediatric Neuro-Oncology
Professor of Psychiatry; Chief of Psychiatry, VA Connecticut Healthcare System
Dr. Petrakis is a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and the Director of the Mental Health Service Line at VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS) since July 2010. Dr. Petrakis completed residency training at Yale School of Medicine and then a NIDA-funded addiction psychiatry clinical/research fellowship. She joined the faculty in 1992. Prior to July 2010, she was the Director of the Substance Abuse Treatment Program of the VACHS since 1996. Dr. Petrakis is also the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency at Yale, an ACGME-accredited program and the PI of both an NIAAA-funded and a NIDA-funded training grant (T32).Her research interests are predominately two-fold: (1) finding appropriate treatments for dually diagnosed individuals and (2) understanding the neurobiological mechanisms underlying alcohol dependence. She has received... Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Medical & Associate Director, Yale PRIME Psychosis Risk Clinic, Psychiatry
Dr. Powers is an Associate Professor at the Yale University Department of Psychiatry and Medical Director and Associate Director of the PRIME Psychosis Risk Clinic at Yale. In addition to treating individuals who suffer from the symptoms of early psychosis, he uses computational approaches to understand how sensory systems might go awry to produce hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis.Associate Professor of Psychiatry; Associate Professor, Radiology and Biomedical Imaging; Co-Medical Director, Yale PET Center; Affiliated Faculty, Yale Institute for Global Health
Assistant Professor
Dr. Schnakenberg Martin is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine and a Research Psychologist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System (VACHS). She is also the Director of the Early Psychosis Intervention Coordination (EPIC) Program at the VACHS, and has an extensive background in Metacognitive Reflection and Insight Therapy (MERIT). In addition to treating Veterans with serious mental illness and co-occurring substance use disorders, Dr. Schnakenberg Martin has a vibrant research program seeking to understand the relationship between substance use, such as cannabis, and the development of psychosis. To study this complex relationship, she uses a multimodal approach including psychophysiology (e.g., simultaneous magnetoencephalography and electroencephalography), assessments of metacognition and neurocognition, as well as pharmacological... Professor of Psychiatry; Director of Stress Epigenetics, Yale Stress Center
Dr. Xu is a Professor of Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine and holds a position as Staff Psychiatrist at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. Her research is dedicated to exploring the complex interactions between stress and the epigenome, aiming to uncover how these interactions contribute to the development of stress-related symptoms and disorders such as substance use. This important work has led Dr. Xu to investigate a broad spectrum of behavioral and medical conditions in diverse populations. Dr. Xu is engaged in the field of social epigenomics that helps us understanding the biological underpinnings of the effects of social environments on health.