Rachel Gunn
· Associate Professor of Behavioral and Social SciencesBrown University · Epidemiology
Active 2009–2026
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About
Rachel Gunn is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and also holds a position in the Department of Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University. She is a clinical psychologist whose research focuses on understanding the etiology of alcohol and cannabis use across different populations. Her work employs mixed-method approaches, including laboratory and ambulatory assessments, to investigate the behavioral and pharmacological factors influencing substance use and related consequences. Dr. Gunn received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Indiana University-Bloomington, where she studied impulsive personality and executive functioning in relation to young adult drinking. She completed her clinical internship at the Alpert Medical School at Brown University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies in the School of Public Health, during which she studied the behavioral pharmacology of cannabis use and laboratory administration methods. Her current projects examine the impact of simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use, cannabis use on alcohol treatment outcomes, and the effects of perinatal cannabis use on mental health. Her research is funded by several grants, and she collaborates with multiple faculty members at Brown University.
Research topics
- Psychology
- Medicine
- Psychiatry
- Clinical psychology
- Environmental health
- Chemistry
- Biology
- Medical emergency
Selected publications
Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2020 · 149 citations
Patterns of Cannabis and Alcohol Co-Use: Substitution Versus Complementary Effects
Alcohol research · 2022 · 91 citations
1st authorCorrespondingPURPOSE: The purpose of this review is to discuss the literature regarding the concurrent use (co-use) of alcohol and cannabis and competing hypotheses as to whether cannabis acts as a substitute for (i.e., replacing the effects of alcohol, resulting in decreased use) or a complement to (i.e., used to enhance the effects of alcohol, resulting in increased use) alcohol. The impact of cannabis use on alcohol-related outcomes has received increased attention in the wake of ongoing legalization of c…
Addictive Behaviors · 2020 · 70 citations
1st authorCorrespondingUse of the BACtrack Skyn alcohol biosensor: Practical applications for data collection and analysis
Addiction · 2023-04-15 · 14 citations
articleOpen access1st authorCorrespondingAIMS: Alcohol biosensors, including the BACtrack Skyn, provide an objective and passive method of continuously assessing alcohol consumption in the natural environment. Despite the many strengths of the Skyn, six key challenges in the collection and processing of data include (1) identifying consumed alcohol; (2) identifying environmental alcohol; (3) identifying and determining the source of missing or invalid data; (4) achieving high participant adherence; (5) integrating Skyn and self-report…
Drug and Alcohol Dependence · 2023-08-08 · 13 citations
articleOpen access
Recent grants
Frequent coauthors
- 87 shared
Kristina M. Jackson
Pacific Institute For Research and Evaluation
- 65 shared
Jane Metrik
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- 50 shared
Angela K. Stevens
Brown University
- 46 shared
Alexander W. Sokolovsky
John Brown University
- 38 shared
Helene R. White
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
- 29 shared
Lauren Micalizzi
John Brown University
- 21 shared
Brian Borsari
- 20 shared
Holly Boyle
Brown University
Labs
Gunn, RachelPI
Education
- 2017
Ph.D.
Indiana University at Bloomington
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