Sabra Inslicht

Sabra Inslicht, PhD is a Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Medicine and a key member of the UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences. She maintains her laboratory at the San Francisco VA Medical Center where she directs the Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR) Laboratory focused on understanding biological and psychological components of traumatic stress.

Dr. Inslicht's educational background includes a BA in Psychology from Rutgers University (1994), a Psychology Honors Program at the University of Haifa (1993), an MS in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh (1998), and a PhD in Clinical and Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh (2002). She completed her Clinical Psychology internship at the VA Palo Alto Healthcare System (2002) and postdoctoral training at Stanford University Medical Center (2003) in Child and Adolescent Clinical Psychology, followed by additional postdoctoral studies at UCSF (2008).

Her research program centers on five primary goals: (1) identifying psychobiological causes and consequences of traumatic stress symptoms; (2) utilizing fear conditioning and extinction models to better understand PTSD; (3) characterizing sex differences in the biology of PTSD; (4) improving measurement techniques using mobile health devices; and (5) developing novel interventions for prolonged PTSD responses. Her work spans multiple disciplines including psychophysiology, psychoneuroendocrinology, sleep medicine, and women's health with particular emphasis on military and veteran populations.

Dr. Inslicht's publication record demonstrates consistent productivity with over 50 publications spanning from 2000 to 2025. Her recent work shows increasing focus on sex differences in PTSD, hormonal influences on trauma response, and the intersection of trauma with women's health issues including menopause, infertility, and cardiovascular health. Her research employs diverse methodologies including neuroimaging, physiological measurement, hormonal assessment, and innovative mobile health technologies.

She has secured substantial research funding as Principal Investigator from multiple sources including the NIH, Department of Veterans Affairs, and Department of Defense. Current projects include studies on sex differences in stress-related cardiometabolic risk in PTSD, suvorexant for treating sleep disturbance in posttraumatic stress, and metabolomics approaches to understanding long-term physical consequences of disturbed sleep in PTSD. She also serves as Co-mentor for research focused on improving healthcare for women veterans.

Dr. Inslicht's Stress, Trauma, and Resilience Laboratory operates at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and collaborates extensively with researchers across UCSF, the VA system, and other academic institutions. Her work has received significant media attention with coverage in major outlets discussing topics such as women veterans' mental health, suicide risk, and the biological underpinnings of PTSD. She has established herself as a leading researcher in the field of trauma psychology with particular expertise in sex differences and physiological mechanisms of PTSD.