Leslie Brick, PhD

My research program investigates the interplay between substance use and stress-sensitive psychopathology, with particular focus on cannabis/cannabinoids and stress/trauma. I examine biological mechanisms in combination with environmental and developmental influences that confer risk for addiction and stress-related outcomes. Leveraging multimethod designs such as ecological momentary assessment, ambulatory physiology, and psychophysiological laboratory tasks (e.g., fear potentiated startle), my currently funded work (R01DA054116) aims to understand how cannabis use modulates stress responses (and vice versa) following acute trauma exposure among young adults in the Emergency Department. In addition to my substantive interests, I am deeply invested in quantitative methodology, with expertise in intensive longitudinal methods (e.g., ecological momentary assessment, dynamic structural equation modeling, idiographic network approaches) and structural equation modeling.