Ismene Petrakis, M.D.
Dr. Ismene Petrakis is Professor of Psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine and the Chief of Psychiatry and Mental Health Services at VA Connecticut Healthcare System. She is also the Director of the Addiction Psychiatry Residency at Yale University School of Medicine and the principal investigator of a National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA-T32) training grant. She is involved in the education of medical students and residents at many stages of their training, particularly around clinical issues of addictive disorders. She is also a grant funded investigator (funding sources over the years have included NIH, VA, Department of Defense, NARSAD and the Stanley Foundation) whose research interests include developing an understanding of the neurobiology of alcohol dependence and in testing potentially effective treatments for individuals with alcohol dependence and comorbid Axis I psychiatric disorders, particularly PTSD. Dr. Petrakis is the Co-PI for the PASA trial, “Kappa Opioid Receptor Antagonism for the Treatment of Alcohol Use Disorder and Comorbid PTSD.”
Dr. Petrakis received her undergraduate degree at Northwestern University and her medical training at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. She completed her residency training at Yale University School of Medicine and then completed an Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship, also at Yale University. Since completing her training, Dr. Petrakis has over 20 years of experience in the clinical treatment of addictive disorders, research in this field and in the education of residents, medical students, post-doctoral fellows and other mental health trainees in the assessment, accurate diagnosis and treatment of patients with addictive disorders, particularly in those with comorbidity.