Leslie Brick

Associate Professor

Photo: Leslie Brick
Email: 
lbrick@unm.edu
Education: 
PhD, Behavioral Science, University of Rhode Island
Lab Website
 
Curriculum vitae
 

Research Area/s:

Cognition, Brain and Behavior,  Diversity and Health Data Across the Lifespan

Research Interests:

  • Substance use and addiction (particularly cannabis)
  • Adversity, stress, and trauma
  • Maladaptive coping strategies, affect regulation, and suicide
  • Intensive longitudinal methods; quantitative methods
  • Ecological momentary assessment and ambulatory assessment
  • Behavioral and molecular genetics, epigenetics
  • Psychophysiology
  • Biomarkers of stress and addiction
  • Cultural context, intersectionality, developmental, and contextual factors

Profile:

Dr. Brick is accepting students for Fall of 2026. Please email Dr. Brick if you are interested in pursuing graduate studies. 

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—including genetic and epigenetic variation, hormonal and immune functioning, and the endocannabinoid system—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 elucidate 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. The overarching goal of my research is to advance mechanistic understanding of the interplay between stress exposure and substance use, while contributing to the development and application of rigorous statistical methods that can capture dynamic, real-world processes.

Selected Publications

  • Brick LA, Wallace GT, Raudales A, Iyer RK, Weiss NH. (2025). Heterogeneity across idiographic network associations among emotion dysregulation, alcohol use, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and intimate partner violence. Journal of Traumatic Stress.
  • Smith, A. K., Katrinli, S., Maihofer, A. X., Aiello, A. E., Baker, D. G., Boks, M. P., Brick, L. A., Chen, C. Y., Dalvie, S., Fani, N., Fortier, C. B., Gelernter, J., Geuze, E., Gillespie, C. F., Hayes, J. P., Hong, S., Kessler, R. C., King, A. P., Koen, N., Koenen, K. C., … Traumatic Stress Brain Research Group (2025). Cell-type-specific and inflammatory DNA methylation patterns associated with PTSD. Brain, behavior, and immunity, 128, 540–548. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbi.2025.04.031
  • Raudales, A. M., Wallace, G. T., Kiefer, R., Brick, L. A., Schatten, H. T., & Weiss, N. H. (2025). Momentary dynamics of intimate partner violence and posttraumatic stress symptoms among women: The influence of positive emotion dysregulation. Journal of affective disorders, 391, 119928. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2025.119928
  • Beck, Q. M., Daniels, T. E., Brick, L. A., Parade, S. H., Hjelm, B. E., Ambat, B., Gerke, D., Vawter, M. P., & Tyrka, A. R. (2025). Early life stress, psychiatric conditions, and mitochondrial DNA copy number (mtDNAcn) in medically healthy young adults. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 179, 107504. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2025.107504
  • Karnick, A. T., & Brick, L. A. (2024). From perception to projection: Exploring neuroaffective advances in understanding optimism bias and belief updating. Current Opinion in Psychology, 60, 101937. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2024.101937
  • Grocott, L. R., Brick, L. A., Armey, M. F., Stuart, G. L., & Shorey, R. C. (2024). Alcohol use and intimate partner violence victimization among young adults with a history of perpetration: An ecological momentary assessment study. Alcohol, clinical & experimental research, 48(10), 1941–1950. https://doi.org/10.1111/acer.15417
  • Brick, L. A., Gajewski-Nemes, J. A., Marraccini, M. E., Brown, S., Armey, M., & Nugent, N. R. (2023). Ecological Momentary Assessment of Cannabis Use and Affect Among Adolescents Following Psychiatric Discharge. Journal of studies on alcohol and drugs, 84(1), 67–78. https://doi.org/10.15288/jsad.21-00450
  • Mereish EH, Peters JR, Brick LA, Killam MA, Yen S. (2023). A Daily Diary Study of Minority Stressors, Suicidal Ideation, Non-Suicidal Self-Injury Ideation, and Affective Mechanisms Among Sexual and Gender Minority Youth. Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science.
  • Weiss, N. H., Brick, L. A., Schick, M. R., Forkus, S. R., Raudales, A. M., Contractor, A. A., & Sullivan, T. P. (2022). Posttraumatic stress disorder strengthens the momentary associations between emotion dysregulation and substance use: a micro-longitudinal study of community women experiencing intimate partner violence. Addiction (Abingdon, England), 117(12), 3150–3169. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15992
  • Bountress, K. E., Brick, L. A., Sheerin, C., Grotzinger, A., Bustamante, D., Hawn, S. E., ... & Psychiatric Genomics Consortium Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Working Group. (2022). Alcohol use and alcohol use disorder differ in their genetic relationships with PTSD: a genomic structural equation modelling approach. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 234, 109430.
  • Marceau, K., Brick, L. A., Pasman, J. A., Knopik, V. S., & Reijneveld, S. A. (2022). Interactions between Genetic, Prenatal, Cortisol, and Parenting Influences on Adolescent Substance Use and Frequency: A TRAILS Study. European Addiction Research, 28(3), 176–185. https://doi.org/10.1159/000519864
  • Brick, L. A., Benca-Bachman, C. E., Bertin, L., Martin, K. P., Risner, V., & Palmer, R. H. C. (2021). The intermediary role of adolescent temperamental and behavioral traits on the prospective associations between polygenic risk and cannabis use among young adults of European Ancestry. Addiction, 116(10), 2779–2789. https://doi.org/10.1111/add.15476
  • Brick LA, Marraccini ME, Micalizzi L, Benca-Bachman CE, Knopik VS, Palmer RHC. (2019). Overlapping genetic contribution between suicidal ideation and neurocognitive functioning. Journal of Affective Disorders. PMID: 30769295.
  • Brick LA, Keller, M, Knopik VS, McGeary J, Palmer RHC. (2019). Shared additive genetic variation for alcohol dependence among subjects of African and European ancestry. Addiction Biology, 24(1), 132-144. PMCID: PMC6312725.