Collaborative Research

Women’s Health Research at Yale has integrated the study of gender into new collaborative grants with Key Research Partners in areas related to women and addiction, the neurobiology of gender difference, and reproductive behavioral health.

Active collaborations with other major research centers at Yale focusing on sex and gender effects include:

• Specialized Center of Research on Sex, Stress and Cocaine Addiction
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  A Specialized Center of Research (SCOR) examining gender-specific factors in the association between stress and cocaine addiction forms the focus of this center. This center is made possible through a five-year grant funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse and the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women's Health.  Currently under review for renewal.

  The Yale Specialized Center of Research on Sex, Stress and Cocaine Addiction (SCOR) uses an interdisciplinary approach to: (1) examine the effects of early life stress, sex hormones and stress hormones on cocaine reinforcement and the risk of developing cocaine dependence; and (2) evaluate sex and gender-specific factors in the association between stress and cocaine relapse. These aims are being pursued by means of laboratory and clinical studies in humans, and basic science studies conducted in animals.

  Principal Investigator: Rajita Sinha, Ph.D.
  Scientific Program Directors: Carolyn M. Mazure, Ph.D., Bruce Rounsaville, M.D.
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• Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center
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  The Transdisciplinary Tobacco Use Research Center (TTURC) investigates underlying mechanisms for treatment resistance in smoking and develops novel interventions for treatment-resistant smokers.

  The Sex-Specific Factors Core is designed to examine the relationship of gender to nicotine use and dependence. The purpose of the core is to strengthen existing research in nicotine dependence as it relates to gender, and develop new cutting-edge areas of investigation that will result in direct practical benefit.

  The Core

  • provides methodological consultation to Yale investigators pursuing gender-related hypotheses
  • investigates gender-sensitive and gender-specific factors in nicotine dependence and treatment and in co-occurring alcohol use
  • examines gender-differences in perceived risks and benefits of smoking cessation
  • investigates the relationship of reproductive status and cyclicity to treatment response and relapse, and
  • generates new models to improve our understanding of risk factors for smoking from nationally-representative data sets.

  Sample Projects:

  • Gender differences in motivation to use nicotine
  • Impact of menstrual cycle phase on smoking abstinence
  • Effects of in utero tobacco exposure on “telescoping” from use to addiction
  • Interaction of sex and stress in relapse and failure to quit
  • Effects of mood on accessibility of smoking-related cognition

  The grant supporting this center has recently been renewed by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), National Cancer Institute (NCI), and National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) for an additional five years based on its productivity and success to date.
  Principal Investigator: Stephanie O’Malley, Ph.D.
  Principal Investigator of the Sex-Specific Factors Core: Carolyn M. Mazure, Ph.D.
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• Women's Behavioral Health Research Division
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  The Women’s Behavioral Health Research Division, of the Department of Psychiatry, investigates psychiatric and substance abuse disorders unique to women or more prevalent in women, high-risk behaviors in women associated with poor mental health outcomes, and gender differences in these conditions in order to identify those that manifest differently in women than men and require different interventions.
  The work of the Division includes examining the neurobiological and psychosocial underpinnings of psychiatric and substance use disorders in an integrated, interdisciplinary framework that provides new insights and practical information on the etiology, course, treatment, and prevention of disorders. The Division includes members of the Department of Psychiatry as well as faculty members from other departments and sections, including neurobiology, reproductive endocrinology, and health economics, and has a close collaborative relationship with the Division of Substance Abuse.

  Division Director: Carolyn M. Mazure, Ph.D.

  Over the past year, the Division’s members have been successful in generating important new findings (examples below), obtaining new grant funding, receiving awards and honors, and serving as highly effective mentors.

  Examples of new findings that demonstrate:

  • types of stressors vary by gender in having impact on health habits (Sindelar et al, 2004);
  • prevalence and detection rates for depressive disorders in pregnant women receiving antenatal care (Smith et al, 2004);
  • a novel placental marker for autism (Anderson et al, in press);
  • age-dependent gender differences in the expression of the serotonin transporter (the site of action of antidepressants in brain) in the brainstem of depressed patients (Staley et al, 2005)

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• The Isis Neuroscience Network
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  The Isis Neuroscience Network is part of a national coalition of researchers focused on understanding the neurobiology of sex and gender differences, and the effect that differences in brain have on disease etiology, progression and treatment.  It was established by the Society for Women’s Health Research in Washington, D.C. and its members include scientists from diverse interdisciplinary areas.

  Yale Liaison: Jane Taylor, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Psychiatry

  Dr. Taylor has recently contributed to a book being generated by the Network entitled Sex on the Brain: From Genes to Behavior, edited by Jill B. Becker, Karen Berkley, Nori Geary, Elizabeth Hampson, James Herman, and Elizabeth Young.  Within the basic and clinical biomedical research community, there is increasing recognition that differences between males and females, across the lifespan, affect an individual's health, his/her development of disease, signs and symptoms of pathophysiology, and response to therapy. This book is intended as a resource for scientists, clinicians and students of brain and behavior. Dr. Taylor’s chapter focuses on Sex Differences in Motivation and Addiction.

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• Yale Program for Women’s Reproductive Behavioral Health
• Interdisciplinary Research Consortium on Stress, Self-Control and Addiction (IRCSSA)
• Yale Stress Center