Anya Bershad

Anya Bershad is an Assistant Professor-in-residence in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the UCLA School of Medicine. Her research program focuses on the intersection of psychopharmacology, social behavior, and emotional processing, with particular expertise in the effects of psychoactive substances including MDMA, LSD, and other psychedelics.

Dr. Bershad's research interests center on understanding how psychoactive drugs influence social cognition, emotional responses, and stress reactivity. Her work examines both the basic neuropharmacological mechanisms and potential therapeutic applications of these substances. She investigates how MDMA and other serotonergic compounds affect social bonding, emotional processing, and responses to stress, with implications for treating conditions like PTSD, schizophrenia, and substance use disorders. Her research bridges laboratory-based human psychopharmacology with clinical applications, exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelic-assisted therapies.

Analysis of Dr. Bershad's publication record reveals a strong focus on social psychopharmacology, with particular emphasis on MDMA's effects on social behavior and emotional processing. Her work spans basic mechanisms of drug action, translational challenges in moving from laboratory to therapeutic settings, and clinical applications for conditions involving social dysfunction. She has made significant contributions to understanding how psychedelics alter social cognition, emotional responses to social stimuli, and stress reactivity.

Dr. Bershad maintains active collaborations with leading researchers in the field, including Harriet de Wit at the University of Chicago, Charles Grob at UCLA, Matthew Kirkpatrick at USC, and Gregory Norman at UCSD. Her research program benefits from interdisciplinary approaches combining psychopharmacology, neuroscience, and clinical psychiatry.

Her laboratory work involves human experimental studies examining acute drug effects on social cognition, emotional processing, and stress responses. She employs various methodologies including behavioral assessments, pharmacological challenges, and neuroimaging techniques to investigate the mechanisms through which psychoactive substances influence social behavior and emotional processing.