We are located in the Center on Alcohol, Substance Use, and Addictions (CASAA) at the University of New Mexico.

The BRiCSS Lab investigates the interplay between substance use and stress-sensitive psychopathology, with focus on cannabis/cannabinoids and stress/trauma. We are particularly interested in how biological mechanisms intersect with environmental, cultural, and developmental influences that confer risk for addiction and stress-related outcomes.

Our currently funded work (R01DA054116) leverages multi-method designs like ecological momentary assessment, ambulatory physiology, and psychophysiological laboratory tasks (e.g., fear potentiated startle) and 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 substantive interests, the lab is 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.