Latest Research News

A Yale-led study published in JAMA Network Open is the first large-scale analysis to investigate phenotypic and genetic factors contributing to the psychiatric comorbidity of endometriosis, a complex gynecologic disease.

Anahita Bassir Nia, MD, assistant professor of psychiatry, and Claire Gibson, MD, fourth-year resident, are lead and contributing authors, respectively, of a study in Journal of Psychopharmacology reporting that among individuals with psychosis, cannabis use is associated with lower levels of Anandamide, one of the main endogenous cannabinoids. This is the first published study on the peripheral levels of endocannabinoids in individuals with psychosis.

Neuroimaging technology has been shown to hold great promise in helping clinicians link specific symptoms of mental health disorders to abnormal patterns of brain activity. But a new Yale-led study shows there are still kinks to be ironed out before doctors can translate images of the brain to psychiatric disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

A new paper by Yale School of Medicine researchers challenges scientists in the global neuroscience community to create a more diverse representation of study participants through improved recruitment and enhanced methodological and analysis practices.

Hedy Kober, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, is senior author of a study published in Nature Neuroscience that uncovered a pattern of brain activity that predicts drug and food craving, a potentially valuable biomarker for addiction.

Data from an early phase clinical trial of a drug being developed for adults living with schizophrenia was published December 15 in The Lancet. John H. Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and professor of psychiatry, of neuroscience, and of psychology, and chair of the Yale Department of Psychiatry, is first author of the study of the drug emraclidine, developed by Cerevel Therapeutics.

Yale scientists, including Sophie Holmes, PhD; Ruth Asch, PhD; and Irina Esterlis, PhD, used positron emission tomography to understand the neurobiology underlying bipolar disorder versus major depressive disorder. The findings were published in Biological Psychiatry.

Tami Sullivan, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, and Patricia Nez Henderson, MD, MPH, vice president for the Black Hills Center for American Indian Health (BHCAIH) and the first Indigenous woman to graduate from Yale School of Medicine, have been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to pilot a mindfulness-based, culturally-tailored smoking cessation intervention for Indigenous women who experience intimate partner violence (IPV).

Oral anticoagulation (OAC) reduces stroke and disability in atrial fibrillation (AF) but is underutilized. Researchers, including Julio Nunes, MD, first-year resident, evaluated the effects of a novel patient‐clinician shared decision‐making (SDM) tool in reducing OAC patient's decisional conflict as compared to usual care.