James A Naifeh

PhD

Department of Primary Appointment:
School of Medicine
Psychiatry
Location: Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD
Research Interests:
Suicidal behavior, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and other adverse psychological and behavioral responses to stressful events
Email
james.naifeh.ctr@usuhs.edu
Department Website
Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress

Education

Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Mississippi Medical Center
PhD, University of South Dakota
Predoctoral Clinical Internship, VA Maryland Health Care System
BA, University of Colorado at Boulder

Biography

James A. Naifeh, Ph.D., is Research Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Assistant Scientific Director of the Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress. Following an undergraduate education at the University of Colorado, Dr. Naifeh received his Ph.D. from the University of South Dakota, where he completed the Doctoral Specialty Track in Clinical/Disaster Psychology and served as a Morgan Fellow in the Disaster Mental Health Institute. He completed his clinical internship with the VA Maryland Health Care System and a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

Dr. Naifeh’s research aims to advance understanding of mental health risk and resilience in military personnel through the identification of psychological, environmental, and neurobiological factors associated with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicide, and other adverse health outcomes. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters on these topics. He has also served as an investigator on studies funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Department of Defense, and Department of the Army. Included among these is the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS), the largest epidemiological and neurobiological study of risk and resilience ever conducted in the U.S. military, along with its longitudinal continuation and expansion (STARRS-LS).

Representative Bibliography

Kessler, R. C., Colpe, L. J., Fullerton, C. S., Gebler, N., Naifeh, J. A., Nock, M. K., Sampson, N. A., Schoenbaum, M., Zaslavsky, A. M., Stein, M. B., Ursano, R. J., & Heeringa, S. G (2013). Design of the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research, 22(4), 267-275.

Kessler, R. C., Warner, C. H., Ivany, C., Petukhova, M. V., Rose, S., Bromet, E. J., Brown III, M., Cai, T., Colpe, L. J., Cox, K. L., Fullerton, C. S., Gilman, S. E., Gruber, M. J., Heeringa, S. G., Lewandowski-Romps, L., Li, J., Millikan-Bell, A. M., Naifeh, J. A., Nock, M. K., Rosellini, A. J., Sampson, N. A., Schoenbaum, M., Stein, M. B., Wessely, S., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Ursano, R. J. (2015). Predicting suicides after psychiatric hospitalization in US Army soldiers: The Army Study to Assess Risk and

Naifeh, J. A., Colpe, L. J., Aliaga, P. A., Sampson, N. A., Heeringa, S. G., Stein, M. B., Ursano, R. J., Fullerton, C. S., Nock, M. K., Schoenbaum, M., Zaslavsky, A. M., & Kessler, R. C. (2016). Barriers to initiating and continuing mental health treatment among soldiers in the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). Military Medicine, 181(9), 1021-1032.

Naifeh, J. A., Herberman Mash, H. B., Stein, M. B., Fullerton, C. S., Kessler, R. C., & Ursano, R. J. (2019). The Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS): Progress toward understanding suicide among soldiers. Molecular Psychiatry, 24(1), 34-48.

Naifeh, J. A., Nock, M. K., Dempsey, C. L., Georg, M. W., Aliaga, P. A., Dinh, H. M., Fullerton, C. S., Herberman Mash, H. B., Kao, T.-C., Sampson, N. A., Wynn, G. H., Zaslavsky, A. M., Stein, M. B., Kessler, R. C., & Ursano, R. J. (2022). Association of emotion reactivity and distress intolerance with suicide attempts in U.S. Army soldiers. Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, 52(2), 289-302.

Naifeh, J. A., Richardson, J. D., Del Ben, K. S., & Elhai, J. D. (2010). Heterogeneity in the latent structure of PTSD symptoms among Canadian veterans. Psychological Assessment, 22, 666-674.

Naifeh, J. A., Ursano, R. J., Benfer, N., Wu, H., Herman, M., Benedek, D. M., Russell, D. W., Benevides, K. N., Kao, T.-C., Ng, T. H. H., Aliaga, P. A., Wynn, G. H., Zhang, L., Forsten, R. D., & Fullerton, C. S. (2017). PTSD symptom severity and sensitivity to blood, injury, and mutilation in U.S. Army special operations soldiers. Psychiatry Research, 250, 78-83.

Naifeh, J. A., Ursano, R. J., Kessler, R. C., Zaslavsky, A. M., Nock, M. K., Dempsey, C. L., Bartolanzo, D., Ng, T. H. H., Aliaga, P. A., Zuromski, K. L., Dinh, H. M., Fullerton, C. S., Kao, T.-C., Herberman Mash, H. B., Sampson, N. A., Wynn, G. H., & Stein, M. B. (2019). Transition to suicide attempt from recent suicide ideation in U.S. Army soldiers: Results from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Servicemembers (Army STARRS). Depression and Anxiety, 36, 412-422.

Naifeh, J. A., Ursano, R. J., Stein, M. B., Herberman Mash, H. B., Aliaga, P. A., Fullerton, C. S., Dinh, H. M., Kao, T.-C., Sampson, N. A., & Kessler, R. C. (2022). Association of premilitary mental health with suicide attempts during U.S. Army service. JAMA Network Open, 5(6), e2214771.

Ursano, R. J., Kessler, R. C., Stein, M. B., Naifeh, J. A., Aliaga, P. A., Fullerton, C. S., Wynn, G. H., Vegella, P. L., Ng, T. H. H., Zhang, B. G., Wryter, C. L., Sampson, N. A., Kao, T.-C., Colpe, L. J., Schoenbaum, M., McCarroll, J. E., Cox, K. L., & Heeringa, S. G. (2016). Risk factors, methods, and timing of suicide attempts among U.S. Army soldiers. JAMA Psychiatry, 73(7), 741-749.