Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Network Analysis in U.S. Military Veterans: Examining the Impact of Combat Exposure.

Sarah M. Wilson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the Duke University School of Medicine, with a secondary appointment in the Department of Population Health Sciences and a faculty affiliation in the Duke Center for Health Policy and Inequalities Research. She is a Research Investigator and Co-Lead of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Core at the Veterans Affairs Center of Innovation to Accelerate Discovery and Practice Transformation (ADAPT COIN). She also serves as the Associate Director of the Duke Center for AIDS Research Social and Behavioral Sciences Core.

Dr. Wilson's research focuses on access to care and systems-level healthcare change to improve inequities in populations who experience systemic discrimination, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), individuals with low income, sexual and gender minorities, and specific populations of U.S. Military Veterans. Her clinical work as a licensed clinical psychologist focuses on mental health care for patients with comorbid mental health concerns and stress due to systemic discrimination, as well as training for health care professionals on LGBTQ-affirmative care.

Dr. Wilson has expertise in health equity, social determinants of health, community engagement, intervention development, and implementation science. She is a former Fellow in the Implementation Research Institute. She leads VA and NIH research studies related to implementation science and health equity in the areas of tobacco cessation, provider implicit bias, pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV, and LGBTQ-affirmative mental healthcare.

I am interested in the neuropsychological and behavioral correlates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and adolescent trauma. With a multidisciplinary background in psychology, physics, and biology, I have specific training and expertise in neuroimaging methods and secondary data analysis of neural changes in PTSD and childhood trauma. I systematically study PTSD-related structural and functional brain images using methods that focus on different levels including regional changes, connectivity, and brain networks, respectively, to build a complete behavioral-brain map. I also study the relationship between adolescent brain development and trauma as well as alcohol by using brain structure network graphs, longitudinal studies, and machine learning research methods. Besides, I utilize neuroimaging and neurophysiological techniques to investigate the neural underpinnings of social cognitive and affective functions in both healthy volunteers and patients with mental disorders including excessive internet usage, smoking addiction, Alzheimer’s Disease, and depression. I have successfully collaborated with researchers locally or from other institutions and have had several peer-reviewed publications in each project. 

Research in my lab is focused on brain changes associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other neuropsychiatric disorders. We apply several advanced methods for understanding brain function including functional MRI, structural MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and genetic effects.