Scholars@Duke
Jennifer C. Naylor

Jennifer C. Naylor

Professor in Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Psychiatry, Child & Family Mental Health & Community Psychiatry
jennifer.naylor@duke.edu
Box 102505, Durham, NC 27705
VA Med Ctr, Durham, NC 27705

Selected Publications

Accelerated Biological Aging and Midlife Frailty among U.S. Military Veterans.

Journal Article J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci · November 9, 2025 Injuries characterizing recent military service, such as traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder, are linked to accelerated biological aging. If recent veterans have accelerated aging, they might also show early onset of aging-related phen ... Full text Link to item Cite

Veteran Mental Health Emergency Care Utilization Following SARS-CoV-2 Infection.

Journal Article Health Serv Res · October 2025 OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether Veterans infected with SARS-CoV-2 have an elevated risk for needing mental health emergency care (MHEC) relative to uninfected comparators, as measured by emergency department or urgent care clinic utilization for a mental he ... Full text Link to item Cite

Accelerated Epigenetic Aging and Prospective Morbidity and Mortality Among U.S. Veterans.

Journal Article J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci · June 10, 2025 BACKGROUND: Epigenetic aging measures have promise as surrogate health outcomes in randomized control trials and observational cohort studies. The value of these measures, however, will reflect the extent to which they are associated with prospective healt ... Full text Link to item Cite

Buprenorphine, Pain, and Opioid Use in Patients Taking High-Dose Long-Term Opioids: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA Intern Med · April 1, 2025 IMPORTANCE: Guidelines recommend dose reduction or discontinuation of long-term opioid therapy when harm outweighs benefit, but strategies to help patients do so are limited. OBJECTIVE: To test optionally switching to buprenorphine as a strategy for improv ... Full text Link to item Cite

Veterans at High Risk for Post-COVID-19 Suicide Attempts or Other Self-Directed Violence.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · March 3, 2025 IMPORTANCE: US veterans have a higher risk of suicide than the general civilian population. Research suggests that COVID-19 infection is associated with increased risk of suicide attempts or other forms of self-directed violence (SDV) among veterans. OBJEC ... Full text Link to item Cite

Care Models to Improve Pain and Reduce Opioids Among Patients Prescribed Long-Term Opioid Therapy: The VOICE Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA Intern Med · February 1, 2025 IMPORTANCE: Patients prescribed long-term opioid therapy for chronic pain often experience unrelieved pain, poor quality of life, and serious adverse events. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of integrated pain team (IPT) vs pharmacist collaborative manage ... Full text Link to item Cite

Determining the uptake of best practices in pain interdisciplinary teams: a scoping review

Journal Article Journal of Public Health Germany · January 1, 2025 Background: Many evidence-based practices, such as interdisciplinary teams (IDT) for chronic pain, are mandated in clinical settings. However, the number of pain IDT programs continues to decline, limiting access to evidence-based treatment. The aim of thi ... Full text Cite

Patient and Support Person Satisfaction Following a Whole Health-Informed Interdisciplinary Pain Team Meeting.

Journal Article Fed Pract · December 2024 BACKGROUND: About 65% of veterans report chronic pain in the last 3 months. Whole health is a team-based approach to health care that emphasizes proactive and patient-centered care. This mixed-methods study sought to determine the patient and support perso ... Full text Link to item Cite

Black Americans With Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) Demonstrate Accelerated Epigenetic Pace of Aging Compared to Black Americans Without SCD.

Journal Article J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci · November 1, 2024 BACKGROUND: Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a chronic medical condition characterized by red blood cell sickling, vaso-occlusion, hemolytic anemia, and subsequently, end-organ damage and reduced survival. Because of this significant pathophysiology and early ... Full text Link to item Cite

Accelerated epigenetic aging and prospective morbidity and mortality among U.S. veterans.

Journal Article medRxiv · October 23, 2024 Epigenetic measures of aging derived from DNA methylation are promising biomarkers associated with prospective morbidity and mortality, but require validation in real-world medical settings. Using data from 2,216 post-9/11 veterans, we examined whether acc ... Full text Link to item Cite

Impact of SARS-CoV-2 Infection on Long-Term Depression Symptoms among Veterans.

Journal Article J Gen Intern Med · June 2024 BACKGROUND: Prior research demonstrates that SARS-COV-2 infection can be associated with a broad range of mental health outcomes including depression symptoms. Veterans, in particular, may be at elevated risk of increased depression following SARS-COV-2 in ... Full text Link to item Cite

Deployment-related toxic exposures are associated with worsening mental and physical health after military service: Results from a self-report screening of veterans deployed after 9/11.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2024 Exposure to toxins-such as heavy metals and air pollution-can result in poor health and wellbeing. Recent scientific and media attention has highlighted negative health outcomes associated with toxic exposures for U.S. military personnel deployed overseas. ... Full text Link to item Cite

Risk of Suicide-Related Outcomes After SARS-COV-2 Infection: Results from a Nationwide Observational Matched Cohort of US Veterans.

Journal Article J Gen Intern Med · March 2024 BACKGROUND: Negative mental health-related effects of SARS-COV-2 infection are increasingly evident. However, the impact on suicide-related outcomes is poorly understood, especially among populations at elevated risk. OBJECTIVE: To determine risk of suicid ... Full text Link to item Cite

Posttraumatic stress disorder, trauma, and accelerated biological aging among post-9/11 veterans.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · January 6, 2024 People who experience trauma and develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at increased risk for poor health. One mechanism that could explain this risk is accelerated biological aging, which is associated with the accumulation of chronic diseases, ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

White Matter Microstructure Is Associated with Serum Neuroactive Steroids and Psychological Functioning.

Journal Article J Neurotrauma · April 2023 Military service members are at increased risk for mental health issues, and comorbidity with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common. Largely overlapping symptoms between conditions suggest a shared pathophysiology. The present work investigates the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Probable trauma associated sleep disorder in post-9/11 US Veterans.

Journal Article Sleep Adv · 2023 STUDY OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to (1) estimate trauma associated sleep disorder (TASD) prevalence among post-9/11 era veterans and to describe differences in service and comorbid mental health clinical characteristics among individuals wit ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Time doesn't heal all: PTSD symptoms exacerbate the relationship between age and pain intensity.

Journal Article Front Psychiatry · 2023 OBJECTIVE: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and pain interfere with daily functioning and quality of life for many combat Veterans. As individuals age, pain symptoms tend to increase whereas PTSD symptoms tend to decrease. PTSD symptoms exacer ... Full text Link to item Cite

Optimizing the Equitable Deployment of Virtual Care for Women: Protocol for a Qualitative Evidence Synthesis Examining Patient and Provider Perspectives Supplemented with Primary Qualitative Data.

Journal Article Health Equity · 2023 INTRODUCTION: Women experience numerous barriers to patient-centered health care (e.g., lack of continuity). Such barriers are amplified for women from marginalized communities. Virtual care may improve equitable access. We are conducting a partner-engaged ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Moral Injury as a Mediator of the Associations Between Sexual Harassment and Mental Health Symptoms and Substance Use Among Women Veterans.

Journal Article J Interpers Violence · June 2022 Moral injury is an array of symptoms theorized to develop in response to morally injurious events, defined as events that challenge one's core moral beliefs and expectations about the self, others, and world. Recent measures of moral injury have distinguis ... Full text Link to item Cite

Reciprocal Effects Between Depressive Symptoms and Pain in Veterans over 50 Years of Age or Older.

Journal Article Pain Med · February 1, 2022 OBJECTIVE: Depression and chronic pain are major problems in American veterans, yet there is limited long-term research examining how they relate to one another in this population. This study examined the relationship between depressive symptoms and pain i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Warzone experiences and subsequent clinician suicide risk assessment in veterans

Journal Article Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior · December 1, 2021 Objective: To determine in veterans whether severity of combat exposure was predictive of subsequently receiving a suicide risk assessment (SRA), and whether this relationship was meditated by depression symptomatology. Method: We conducted an electronic m ... Full text Cite

A network analysis of risk factors for suicide in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2021 Suicidal ideation (SI) is a prevalent issue in the veteran population. A number of factors have been identified as risk factors for suicidal ideation (SI) in veterans, including suicide attempts, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and drug u ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cannabis use disorder, anger, and violence in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2021 An association has been found between cannabis use disorder (CUD) and violence in several clinical populations, including veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and there is evidence that CUD has been increasing among veterans since September ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sex differences in predictors of recurrent major depression among current-era military veterans.

Journal Article Psychol Serv · May 2021 Although major depressive disorder (MDD) is a frequent diagnosis among women seeking care in the Veterans Health Administration, little is known about its course. For example, recurrence of MDD and its predictors have been investigated in civilians, but no ... Full text Link to item Cite

Screening for moral injury and comparatively evaluating moral injury measures in relation to mental illness symptomatology and diagnosis.

Journal Article Clin Psychol Psychother · January 2021 Moral injury merits further study to clarify its identification, prevalence, assessment and intersection with psychosocial and psychiatric problems. The present study investigated the screening potential of the Brief Moral Injury Screen (BMIS) in a sample ... Full text Link to item Cite

Gene Expression Analysis in Three Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Cohorts Implicates Inflammation and Innate Immunity Pathways and Uncovers Shared Genetic Risk With Major Depressive Disorder.

Journal Article Front Neurosci · 2021 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex psychiatric disorder that can develop following exposure to traumatic events. The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium PTSD group (PGC-PTSD) has collected over 20,000 multi-ethnic PTSD cases and controls and has ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Improving Veteran Access to Integrated Management of Back Pain (AIM-Back): Protocol for an Embedded Pragmatic Cluster-Randomized Trial.

Journal Article Pain Med · December 12, 2020 BACKGROUND: Coordinated efforts between the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense, and the Department of Veterans Affairs have built the capacity for large-scale clinical research investigating the effectiveness of nonpharmacologic pain ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Epigenome-wide meta-analysis of PTSD across 10 military and civilian cohorts identifies methylation changes in AHRR.

Journal Article Nat Commun · November 24, 2020 Epigenetic differences may help to distinguish between PTSD cases and trauma-exposed controls. Here, we describe the results of the largest DNA methylation meta-analysis of PTSD to date. Ten cohorts, military and civilian, contribute blood-derived DNA meth ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neuroendocrine biomarkers of prolonged exposure treatment response in military-related PTSD.

Journal Article Psychoneuroendocrinology · September 2020 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with dysregulation of the neuroendocrine system, including cortisol, allopregnanolone, and pregnanolone. Preliminary evidence from animal models suggests that baseline levels of these biomarkers may predic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Serum Neurosteroid Levels Are Associated With Cortical Thickness in Individuals Diagnosed With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and History of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Journal Article Clin EEG Neurosci · July 2020 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) co-occurring with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) is common in veterans. Worse clinical outcome in those with PTSD has been associated with decreased serum neurosteroid levels. Furthermore, decreased cortical thickne ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neural correlates of conceptual-level fear generalization in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Neuropsychopharmacology · July 2020 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop when mechanisms for making accurate distinctions about threat relevance have gone awry. Generalization across conceptually related objects has been hypothesized based on clinical observation in PTSD, but the ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of Pregnenolone vs Placebo on Self-reported Chronic Low Back Pain Among US Military Veterans: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Journal Article JAMA Netw Open · March 2, 2020 IMPORTANCE: In response to the national opioid public health crisis, there is an urgent need to develop nonopioid solutions for effective pain management. Neurosteroids are endogenous molecules with pleotropic actions that show promise for safe and effecti ... Full text Link to item Cite

Amygdala Nuclei Volume and Shape in Military Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Journal Article Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging · March 2020 BACKGROUND: The amygdala is a subcortical structure involved in socioemotional and associative fear learning processes relevant for understanding the mechanisms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research in animals indicates that the amygdala is a h ... Full text Link to item Cite

Combat exposure, posttraumatic stress disorder, and head injuries differentially relate to alterations in cortical thickness in military Veterans.

Journal Article Neuropsychopharmacology · February 2020 Combat-exposed Veterans are at increased risk for developing psychological distress, mood disorders, and trauma and stressor-related disorders. Trauma and mood disorders have been linked to alterations in brain volume, function, and connectivity. However, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pain Intensity and Pain Interference in Male and Female Iraq/Afghanistan-era Veterans.

Journal Article Womens Health Issues · June 25, 2019 BACKGROUND: Chronic pain conditions are common among both male and female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans and can have substantial negative impacts on quality of life and function. Although in general women tend to report higher levels of pain intensity than ... Full text Link to item Cite

Relationship between traumatic brain injury history and recent suicidal ideation in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans.

Journal Article Psychol Serv · May 2019 This study evaluated whether a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) was associated with increased risk for recent suicidal ideation (SI) after accounting for demographics, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and sleep quality. In terms of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain Injury: Sex differences in veterans.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · April 2019 Around half of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) have co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Research on the differences between male and female veterans with co-occurring PTSD/TBI is sparse. This study evaluat ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cigarette smoking rates among veterans: Association with rurality and psychiatric disorders.

Journal Article Addict Behav · March 2019 AIMS: Compared to the general U.S. population, military veterans and those living in rural areas disproportionately smoke cigarettes at higher rates, leading to increased health consequences. In the current study, prevalence and severity of cigarette smoki ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neurosteroid Levels in the Orbital Frontal Cortex of Subjects with PTSD and Controls: A Preliminary Report.

Journal Article Chronic Stress (Thousand Oaks) · January 2019 BACKGROUND: Neurosteroids mediate stress signaling and have been implicated in the pathogenesis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in both preclinical and clinical studies. Compared to controls, subjects with PTSD exhibit altered neurosteroid levels ... Full text Link to item Cite

The association of resilience on psychiatric, substance use, and physical health outcomes in combat trauma-exposed military service members and veterans.

Journal Article Eur J Psychotraumatol · 2019 Objective: Although Combat exposure is associated with a range of psychiatric outcomes, many veterans do not develop psychopathology. Resilience is a multifaceted construct associated with reduced risk of distress and psychopathology; however, few studies ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Widespread Cortical Thickness Is Associated With Neuroactive Steroid Levels.

Journal Article Front Neurosci · 2019 BACKGROUND: Neuroactive steroids are endogenous molecules with regenerative and neuroprotective actions. Both cortical thickness and many neuroactive steroid levels decline with age and are decreased in several neuropsychiatric disorders. However, a system ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Behavioral and Health Outcomes Associated With Deployment and Nondeployment Acquisition of Traumatic Brain Injury in Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans.

Journal Article Arch Phys Med Rehabil · December 2018 OBJECTIVE: To characterize behavioral and health outcomes in veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) acquired in nondeployment and deployment settings. DESIGN: Cross-sectional assessment evaluating TBI acquired during and outside of deployment, mental a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Psychosocial Risk Factors and Other Than Honorable Military Discharge: Providing Healthcare to Previously Ineligible Veterans.

Journal Article Mil Med · September 1, 2018 INTRODUCTION: In response to a strong focus on suicide prevention for all veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently revised policy to provide emergency mental healthcare for veterans who received Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharges from ... Full text Link to item Cite

Chronic Pain, TBI, and PTSD in Military Veterans: A Link to Suicidal Ideation and Violent Impulses?

Journal Article J Pain · July 2018 UNLABELLED: The polytrauma clinical triad refers to the co-occurrence of chronic pain, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Despite research implicating dyadic relationships between these conditions and adverse outcomes, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Informing Federal Policy on Firearm Restrictions for Veterans with Fiduciaries: Risk Indicators in the Post-Deployment Mental Health Study.

Journal Article Adm Policy Ment Health · July 2018 This article examines the public safety rationale for a federal policy of prohibiting gun sales to veterans with psychiatric disabilities who are assigned a fiduciary to manage their benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs. The policy was evaluate ... Full text Link to item Cite

The Association Between Alcohol Consumption, Lifetime Alcohol Use Disorder, and Psychiatric Distress Among Male and Female Veterans.

Journal Article J Stud Alcohol Drugs · July 2018 OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to examine among veterans (a) whether alcohol consumption patterns are associated with probability of psychiatric symptoms and (b) whether an alcohol use disorder (AUD) history explains psychiatric symptoms among nondrinkers. ME ... Full text Link to item Cite

Risk factors for concurrent suicidal ideation and violent impulses in military veterans.

Journal Article Psychol Assess · April 2018 Suicide and violence are significant problems in a subset of Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. This study investigates how posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and resilience in veterans are associated with suicidal ideation and violent impulses while control ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain Structural Covariance Network Topology in Remitted Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Journal Article Front Psychiatry · 2018 Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent, chronic disorder with high psychiatric morbidity; however, a substantial portion of affected individuals experience remission after onset. Alterations in brain network topology derived from cortical thic ... Full text Link to item Cite

Does Deployment-Related Military Sexual Assault Interact with Combat Exposure to Predict Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Female Veterans?

Journal Article Traumatology (Tallahass Fla) · 2018 The objective of the present research was to expand upon previous findings indicating that military sexual trauma interacts with combat exposure to predict PTSD among female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. Three hundred and thirty female veterans completed ... Link to item Cite

Exploring resilience models in a sample of combat-exposed military service members and veterans: a comparison and commentary.

Journal Article Eur J Psychotraumatol · 2018 Background: The term resilience is applied in numerous ways in the mental health field, leading to different perspectives of what constitutes a resilient response and disparate findings regarding its prevalence following trauma. Objective: illustrate the i ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sleep quality in returning veterans: The influence of mild traumatic brain injury.

Journal Article Rehabil Psychol · November 2017 OBJECTIVE: Sleep disturbance is a key behavioral health concern among Iraq and Afghanistan era veterans and is a frequent complaint among veterans with a history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Currently, it is unclear whether sleep disturbance is a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Self-Reported Pain in Male and Female Iraq/Afghanistan-Era Veterans: Associations with Psychiatric Symptoms and Functioning.

Journal Article Pain Med · September 1, 2017 OBJECTIVE: To examine pain symptoms and co-occurring psychiatric and functional indices in male and female Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans. DESIGN: Self-reported data collection and interviews of Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans who participated in a multisite ... Full text Link to item Cite

A randomized controlled trial of ganaxolone in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Psychopharmacology (Berl) · August 2017 Preclinical and clinical research supports a role for neuroactive steroids in the pathophysiology of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We investigated ganaxolone (a synthetic 3β-methylated derivative of allopregnanolone, a GABAergic neuroactive steroid ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cannabis use disorder and suicide attempts in Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans.

Journal Article J Psychiatr Res · June 2017 The objective of the present research was to examine the association between lifetime cannabis use disorder (CUD), current suicidal ideation, and lifetime history of suicide attempts in a large and diverse sample of Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans (N = 3233) ... Full text Link to item Cite

Sexual revictimization among Iraq and Afghanistan war era veterans.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · June 30, 2016 Research in both civilian and military populations has demonstrated that females who experience childhood sexual abuse (CSA) are more likely to experience sexual assault in adulthood than females who did not experience CSA. Among veteran samples, however, ... Full text Link to item Cite

Allopregnanolone Levels Are Inversely Associated with Self-Reported Pain Symptoms in U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan-Era Veterans: Implications for Biomarkers and Therapeutics.

Journal Article Pain Med · January 2016 BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Pain symptoms are common among Iraq/Afghanistan-era veterans, many of whom continue to experience persistent pain symptoms despite multiple pharmacological interventions. Preclinical data suggest that neurosteroids such as allopr ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

An exploratory pilot investigation of neurosteroids and self-reported pain in female Iraq/Afghanistan-era Veterans.

Journal Article J Rehabil Res Dev · 2016 Female Veterans are the most rapidly growing segment of new users of the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), and a significant proportion of female Veterans receiving treatment from VHA primary care providers report persistent pain symptoms. Currently, a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Brain and Serum Androsterone Is Elevated in Response to Stress in Rats with Mild Traumatic Brain Injury.

Journal Article Front Neurosci · 2016 Exposure to lateral fluid percussion (LFP) injury consistent with mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) persistently attenuates acoustic startle responses (ASRs) in rats. Here, we examined whether the experience of head trauma affects stress reactivity. Male ... Full text Link to item Cite

Fear learning circuitry is biased toward generalization of fear associations in posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Transl Psychiatry · December 15, 2015 Fear conditioning is an established model for investigating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, symptom triggers may vaguely resemble the initial traumatic event, differing on a variety of sensory and affective dimensions. We extended the fear-c ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

Functional correlates of military sexual assault in male veterans.

Journal Article Psychol Serv · November 2015 Despite research findings that similar numbers of male and female veterans are affected by military sexual trauma (MST), there has been considerably less research on the effects of MST specific to male veterans. The aim of the present study was to provide ... Full text Link to item Cite

Effect of genetic variation in the nicotinic receptor genes on risk for posttraumatic stress disorder.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · September 30, 2015 The present study examined the association between genetic variation in the nicotinic receptor gene family (CHRNA2, CHRNA3, CHRNA4, CHRNA5, CHRNA6, CHRNA7, CHRNA9, CHRNA10, CHRNB2, CHRNB3, CHRNB4) and the occurrence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ... Full text Link to item Cite

Drug use and childhood-, military- and post-military trauma exposure among women and men veterans.

Journal Article Drug Alcohol Depend · July 1, 2015 BACKGROUND: The current study was undertaken to examine whether posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depressive symptoms mediated the association between trauma exposure (combat-related trauma and non-combat traumas occurring before, during, and after ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pilot randomized placebo-controlled trial of adjunctive aripiprazole for chronic PTSD in US military Veterans resistant to antidepressant treatment.

Journal Article Int Clin Psychopharmacol · May 2015 Many individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) experience persistent symptoms despite pharmacological treatment with antidepressants. Several open-label monotherapy and adjunctive studies have suggested that aripiprazole (a second-generation a ... Full text Link to item Cite

Exploratory investigation of biomarker candidates for suicide in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Journal Article Crisis · 2015 BACKGROUND: Clozapine and lithium increase neurosteroids in rodents, and both drugs demonstrate antisuicidal actions. We therefore hypothesized that neurosteroid levels may be reduced in patients with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder who completed suicide ... Full text Link to item Cite

Cathodal and anodal left prefrontal tDCS and the perception of control over pain.

Journal Article Clin J Pain · August 2014 OBJECTIVES: The prefrontal cortex may be a promising target for the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in the management of pain symptoms. The present study explored the effects of anodal and cathodal tDCS over the left dorsolateral pref ... Full text Link to item Cite

Amino acids as biomarker candidates for suicidality in male OEF/OIF Veterans: relevance to NMDA receptor modulation and nitric oxide signaling.

Journal Article Mil Med · May 2014 Veteran populations are exposed to multiple stressful events, and suicidality among veterans is a serious problem. Identifying biomarkers of suicidality may enhance detection, prevention, and treatment. Multiple neurotransmitter systems are implicated in t ... Full text Link to item Cite

A pilot randomized controlled trial with paroxetine for subthreshold PTSD in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom era veterans.

Journal Article Psychiatry Res · April 30, 2013 Subthreshold posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with increased risk for suicidality, depression, and functional impairment. We thus conducted a small (N=12) pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) with paroxetine for subthreshold PTSD in Op ... Full text Open Access Link to item Cite

An open-label pilot study of aripiprazole for male and female veterans with chronic post-traumatic stress disorder who respond suboptimally to antidepressants.

Journal Article Int Clin Psychopharmacol · July 2012 Emerging data suggest that second-generation antipsychotics such as aripiprazole may be effective in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, few clinical trials have used aripiprazole in PTSD, and data are limited on its use in Vet ... Full text Link to item Cite

Pregnenolone as a novel therapeutic candidate in schizophrenia: emerging preclinical and clinical evidence.

Journal Article Neuroscience · September 15, 2011 Emerging preclinical and clinical evidence suggests that pregnenolone may be a promising novel therapeutic candidate in schizophrenia. Pregnenolone is a neurosteroid with pleiotropic actions in rodents that include the enhancement of learning and memory, n ... Full text Link to item Cite

Dopamine attenuates evoked inhibitory synaptic currents in central amygdala neurons.

Journal Article Eur J Neurosci · December 2010 The central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) plays a critical role in regulating the behavioral, autonomic and endocrine response to stress. Dopamine (DA) participates in mediating the stress response and DA release is enhanced in the CeA during stressful eve ... Full text Link to item Cite

Neurosteroids and self-reported pain in veterans who served in the U.S. Military after September 11, 2001.

Journal Article Pain Med · October 2010 OBJECTIVE: Nearly half of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans experience continued pain post-deployment. Several investigations report analgesic effects of allopregnanolone and other neurosteroids in animal models, but few data are ... Full text Link to item Cite

Allopregnanolone levels are reduced in temporal cortex in patients with Alzheimer's disease compared to cognitively intact control subjects.

Journal Article Biochim Biophys Acta · August 2010 The neurosteroid allopregnanolone has pronounced neuroprotective actions, increases myelination, and enhances neurogenesis. Evidence suggests that allopregnanolone dysregulation may play a role in the pathophysiology of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and other n ... Full text Link to item Cite

Proof-of-concept trial with the neurosteroid pregnenolone targeting cognitive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia.

Journal Article Neuropsychopharmacology · July 2009 The neurosteroid pregnenolone and its sulfated derivative enhance learning and memory in rodents. Pregnenolone sulfate also positively modulates NMDA receptors and could thus ameliorate hypothesized NMDA receptor hypofunction in schizophrenia. Furthermore, ... Full text Link to item Cite

NEUROSTEROIDS AS NOVEL THERAPEUTIC AGENTS IN SCHIZOPHRENIA AND PTSD

Journal Article SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN · March 1, 2009 Link to item Cite

Allopregnanolone and pregnenolone alterations following pharmacological agents in rodents and clinic populations

Journal Article · December 1, 2008 Recent research has revealed potential roles for neuroactive steroids in the pathophysiology and treatment of a number of psychiatric and neurological disorders. A wide array of preclinical investigations also reports neuroactive steroid actions in areas r ... Full text Cite

Cerebrospinal fluid dehydroepiandrosterone levels are correlated with brain dehydroepiandrosterone levels, elevated in Alzheimer's disease, and related to neuropathological disease stage.

Journal Article J Clin Endocrinol Metab · August 2008 OBJECTIVE: It is currently unknown whether cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) neurosteroid levels are related to brain neurosteroid levels in humans. CSF and brain dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) levels are elevated in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), but it i ... Full text Link to item Cite

The effects of age and task context on Stroop task performance.

Journal Article Mem Cognit · April 2005 In this study, we investigated the impact of age and task context on Stroop task performance, using error scores, response latencies, and process dissociation estimates (e.g., Lindsay & Jacoby, 1994). Across three experiments, the findings showed that alth ... Full text Link to item Cite

Enhanced retention in the passive-avoidance task by 5-HT(1A) receptor blockade is not associated with increased activity of the central nucleus of the amygdala.

Journal Article Learn Mem · 2003 The effect of blockade of 5-HT1A receptors was investigated on (1). retention in a mildly aversive passive-avoidance task, and (2). spontaneous single-unit activity of central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) neurons, a brain site implicated in modulation of ... Full text Link to item Cite

Ethanol inhibits spontaneous activity of central nucleus of the amygdala neurons but does not impair retention in the passive-avoidance task.

Journal Article Alcohol Clin Exp Res · November 2001 BACKGROUND: Behavioral studies using pharmacological manipulations that increase neuronal activity of the central nucleus of the amygdala (CeA) have implicated the CeA in enhancement of memory modulation. To date, however, there has been a dearth of studie ... Link to item Cite

Dose-sensitive excitation and inhibition of spontaneous amygdala activity by propranolol.

Journal Article Pharmacol Biochem Behav · 2001 The effect of systemically administered propranolol was determined on spontaneous activity of neurons in the central nucleus (CeA) of the amygdala, a brain site implicated in fear-related learning and memory. Extracellular recordings of single units in the ... Full text Link to item Cite