Department of Psychiatry Faculty

Rajita Sinha, Ph.D. Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Addiction Services, Connecticut Mental Health Center Director, Yale Research program on Stress, Addiction and Psychopathology 34 Park Street, Room S110, CMHC Phone: 203-974-7608; 203-974-7353 Email: rajita.sinha@yale.edu Research Program Homepages: http://www.yalescor.org; http://www.yalestress.org

Education:

1984, BA, Delhi University, India
1990, PhD, Biological Psychology, Oklahoma University Health Services Center
1992, Respecialization in Clinical Psychology, Department of Psychology, Yale University.

Academic and Research Interests:

Clinical neurobiology of emotional stress, desire and drug craving and its effects on lapse and relapse to consummatory behaviors, such as, drinking, eating and drug use. An additional interest is in developing treatments to target stress related relapse in addictive disorders. We’ve developed and validated a laboratory model of stress-induced craving and lapse to addictive behaviors. The laboratory model characterizes the drug craving state and is now 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, life stress, prefrontal cognitive functioning that may modulate responses to stress and urges are also being studied.

Clinical Research Staff:

Keri Bergquist, Psy D, Associate Research Scientist, Clinical Director
Tara Chaplin, Ph.D., Post Doctoral Associate
Chiang Shan Ray Li, MD, Ph.D., Assistant Professor
Danielle Comegys, M.S., Research Associate II
Zubaida Dabre, B.A., Research Assistant I
Helen Fox, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Julie Hansen, B.Psych, Research Associate
Keith Harenski, B.S., fMRI Specialist
Adam Hong, M.A., Data Manager and Statistician
Scott Hyman, Ph.D., Associate Research Scientist
Cheryl Lacadie, B.S., Neuroimaging Data Manager
Gina Lombardi, B.A., Research Associate
Verica Milivojevic, B.S., Research Assistant I
Prashni Paliwal, Ph.D., Assoc. Research Scientist and Statistician
Kristen Siedlarz, M.A., Research Assistant II

Publications of Note:

Sinha, R, Li, C-SR (2007). Imaging stress and drug cue-induced craving: Association to relapse and clinical implications. Drug and Alcohol Review, 26, 25-31.

Carroll, KM, Easton, CJ, Nich, C, Hunkele, KA, Neavins, TM, Sinha, R, Ford, HL, Vitolo, SA, Doebrick CA, Rounsaville, BJ.(2006). Treating Marijuana Dependence in Young Adults with Contingency Management and Motivational/Skills Building Therapy. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74(5):955-966.

Sinha R, Garcia M, Paliwal P, Kreek MJ, Rounsaville BJ (2006). Stress-induced cocaine craving and HPA responses predict cocaine relapse outcomes. Archives of General Psychiatry, 63, 324-331.

Sinha, R, Kimmerling A, Doebrick CA, Kosten TR (2006). Lofexidine decreases stress-induced opioid craving and improves opioid abstinence rates in naltrexone treated opiate addicts: Preliminary findings. Psychopharmacology (epub Nov 29

Sinha R, Lacadie C, Skudlarski P, Fulbright RK, Kosten TR, Rounsaville BJ, Wexler, BE (2005). Neural activity associated with stress-induced cocaine craving: An fMRI study. Psychopharmacology, 183: 171-180.

Li, C.-S. R., Huang, C., Constable, R.T., Sinha, R (2006). Imaging response inhibition in a stop-signal task: Neural correlates independent of post-response processing. Journal of Neuroscience, 26(1), 186-192.

Brady K, Sinha R (2005). Co-occurring mental and substance use disorders: The neurobiological effects of chronic stress. American Journal of Psychiatry, 162: 1483-1493.

Li C-S, Kosten TR, Sinha, R (2005) Sex differences in brain response to stress imagery in abstinent cocaine dependent individuals – an fMRI study. Biological Psychiatry, 57: 487-494.

Dodge R, Sindelar J, Sinha R (2005). Role of depressive symptoms in predicting drug abstinence in outpatient substance abuse treatment. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 28, 189-196.

Sinha, R. (2005). Stress and Drug Abuse. In N. H. K. T. Steckler, J.M.H.M. Reul (Ed.), Handbook of Stress and the Brain. Part 2 Stress: Integrative and Clinical Aspects (Vol. 15, pp. 333-356). Amsterdam: Elsevier.

Sinha R, Lacadie C, Skudlarski P, Wexler BE (2004). Neural circuits underlying emotional distress in humans. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Volume 1032, 254-257.

Sinha R, Talih M, Malison, R, Anderson GA, Cooney N, Kreek MJ (2003). Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and sympatho-adreno-medullary responses during stress-induced and drug cue-induced cocaine craving states. Psychopharmacology, 170, 62-72.

Sinha R (2001). How does stress increase risk of drug abuse and relapse? Psychopharmacology, 158, 343-359.

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