معرفی
Patrick Worhunsky is an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine. He holds affiliations with the Yale Cocaine Research Clinic and the MR Core. His research focuses on addiction neuroscience, particularly examining neurobiological mechanisms underlying substance use disorders using advanced neuroimaging techniques. He completed a DPhil (PhD) at the University of Oxford.
Key research interests include dopamine systems, synaptic plasticity, and emotional processing in addiction contexts. His work integrates PET imaging, fMRI, and behavioral paradigms to study cocaine use disorder, vitamin D's effects on dopamine, and brain structure-function relationships in addiction. He collaborates with researchers like Marc Potenza, Richard Carson, and Irina Esterlis.
Recent studies explore how vitamin D modulates dopamine release, cocaine self-administration correlates with brain morphometry, and synaptic density links to resting-state networks. His work has been published in high-impact journals like Biological Psychiatry and Cerebral Cortex.
Dr. Worhunsky participates in clinical trials studying brain mechanisms and has received grant support for translational addiction research. His lab investigates neurobiological pathways in addiction, mental health, and decision-making processes.