Neuropsychopharmacology
July 16, 2026
Connor J Haggarty, Christine A Rabinak
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by difficulties in emotion regulation and altered recruitment of prefrontal control systems during cognitive reappraisal. Cannabinoid signaling has been implicated in stress and affect regulation, yet dose-dependent effects of acute delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) on the neural mechanisms supporting reappraisal in PTSD remain unclear. In...
Psychopharmacology
February 1, 2026
Nicole L Zabik, Allesandra Iadipaolo, Craig A Peters et al.
Prior work from our lab and others demonstrates that the endocannabinoid system is a promising avenue for improving fear memory deficits in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Specifically, 7.5 mg of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) decreases fear responding in healthy adults and increases prefrontal cortex activation during extinction learning and fear renewal in adults with PTSD. The...
Contemporary Clinical Trials
2026
Christine A Rabinak, Paul E Kilgore, Mark A. Lumley et al.
Prolonged exposure (PE) therapy is effective for PTSD, yet dropout and partial response remain concerning. Preclinical and human studies suggest Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) enhances fear extinction and recall through brain cannabinoid receptor activation in fear processing. Examine whether synthetic THC (dronabinol) augments PE effectiveness. Double-blind, placebo-controlled, trial with...
Neuropharmacology
November 1, 2022
Regina Pacitto, Craig A Peters, Allesandra Iadipaolo et al.
Emotion dysregulation is considered a core component of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Cognitive reappraisal is one therapeutic emotion regulation strategy that has been widely studied among individuals with mood and anxiety disorders, and numerous differences in brain activation patterns have been shown between individuals with and without PTSD during tasks of cognitive reappraisal....
Pediatric blood & cancer
October 1, 2022
Aneesh Hehr, Allesandra Iadipaolo, Austin Morales et al.
Mounting evidence demonstrates that meditation can lower pain and emotional distress in adults, and more recently, in children. Children may benefit from meditation given its accessibility across a variety of settings (e.g., surgical preparation). Recent neuroimaging studies in adults suggest that meditation techniques are neurobiologically distinct from other forms of emotion regulation, such...
Biological Psychiatry
July 1, 2021
L. Mayo, Christine A Rabinak, M. Hill et al.
The endocannabinoid (eCB) system is one the most ubiquitous signaling systems of the brain and offers a rich pharmacology including multiple druggable targets. Preclinical research shows that eCB activity influences functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and amygdala and thereby influences an organism’s ability to cope with threats and stressful experiences. Animal studies show...
Psychopharmacology
June 2020
Christine A Rabinak, Ashley Blanchette, Nicole L Zabik et al.
Excessive fear and anxiety, coupled with corticolimbic dysfunction, are core features of stress- and trauma-related psychopathology, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Interestingly, low doses of ∆9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can produce anxiolytic effects, reduce threat-related amygdala activation, and enhance functional coupling between the amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex and...
Neuropharmacology
December 2018
Christine A Rabinak, Craig A Peters, Hilary A Marusak et al.
We have previously demonstrated that an acute dose of Δ9-tetrahydrocanninbinol (THC), administered prior to extinction learning, facilitates later recall of extinction learning and modulates the underlying neural circuitry, including the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC), hippocampus (HPC), and amygdala (AMYG). It remains unknown whether THC-induced changes in fear-extinction neural...
Behavioural Brain Research
January 15, 2018
Hilary A Marusak, Farrah Elrahal, Craig A Peters et al.
Interventions that promote mindfulness consistently show salutary effects on cognition and emotional wellbeing in adults, and more recently, in children and adolescents. However, we lack understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying mindfulness in youth that should allow for more judicious application of these interventions in clinical and educational settings. Using multi-echo...
Neuropsychopharmacology
June 2016
Stephanie M. Gorka, K Luan Phan, Maryssa Lyons et al.
Behavioral and brain research indicates that administration of Δ(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) alters threat perception and enhances the suppression of conditioned fear responses via modulation of the frontolimbic circuit. No prior studies, however, have examined whether THC also affects volitional forms of emotion processing such as cognitive reappraisal. The aim of the current study was...
Neuroscience Letters
January 12, 2016
Julia A. Digangi, Armin Tadayyon, D. Fitzgerald et al.
Recent studies show decreased functional connectivity in the default mode network (DMN) in PTSD; however, few have directly examined combat trauma specifically. There is limited understanding of how combat itself may affect the DMN. Some literature suggests that trauma exposure, rather than PTSD, can disrupt the DMN. To further elucidate the effect of trauma and PTSD on the DMN, we investigated...
Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
September 2014
Christine A Rabinak, Mike Angstadt, Maryssa Lyons et al.
Pre-extinction administration of Δ9-tetrahydrocannibinol (THC) facilitates recall of extinction in healthy humans, and evidence from animal studies suggest that this likely occurs via enhancement of the cannabinoid system within the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) and hippocampus (HIPP), brain structures critical to fear extinction. However, the effect of cannabinoids on the underlying...
Journal of Neural Transmission
June 2012
Christine A Rabinak, Chandra Sekhar Sripada, Mike Angstadt et al.
Cannabinoids affect positive and negative affective experience and emotional perception, possibly by modulating limbic brain reactivity. In this double-blind crossover, placebo-controlled functional magnetic resonance imaging study in humans, an acute oral dose of ∆(9)-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) attenuated subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC) reactivity during the induction of negative...
Aneesh Hehr, Allesandra Iadipaolo, Austin Morales et al.
Background: Mounting evidence demonstrates that meditation can lower pain and emotional distress in adults, and more recently, in children. Meditation may be an effective form of emotion regulation in children because it is easily accessible and more easily done across a variety of settings in which toys may not be available, for e.g., settings requiring a “clean” environment (e.g., surgical...