Rachel Yehuda is a distinguished professor of psychiatry and neuroscience with a prolific career dedicated to understanding the complex nature of trauma and stress. She is particularly renowned for her groundbreaking research into how trauma can be transmitted across generations and how stress affects the brain and body.
Dr. Yehuda is the Director of the Center for Psychedelic Psychotherapy and Trauma Research at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. Her work combines clinical evaluation with biochemical and molecular biological methods to study the effects of traumatic stress in populations such as Holocaust survivors and their children, as well as veterans and their families.
One of the key aspects of Yehuda’s research involves studying epigenetic changes—how traumatic experiences can alter gene expression without changing the DNA sequence itself. Her findings have significantly advanced the understanding of how stress and trauma can lead to psychological disorders such as PTSD, and how these alterations can be passed down to subsequent generations.
Dr. Yehuda’s contributions to the field extend to exploring potential treatments that could mitigate the effects of trauma, including the use of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy. Her insights have opened new avenues for treating PTSD and related conditions, fundamentally changing how trauma is perceived and treated in the medical community.
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