Dr. Erica Eaton is a clinical psychologist in the Trauma Recovery Service at the Providence VA Medical Center (PVAMC) and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior and Behavioral and Social Sciences at Brown University. Her research focuses on the development and evaluation of innovative treatments for Veterans with co-occurring posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD), with a particular emphasis on complementary and integrative treatment approaches, moral injury, and psychedelic-assisted therapies.
Dr. Eaton received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from Fielding Graduate University in 2014 and completed her postdoctoral fellowship in PTSD at Brown University’s Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior. Her clinical and research work has centered on improving treatment engagement, tolerability, and outcomes for Veterans with complex trauma-related presentations, particularly those whose symptoms remain refractory to standard interventions.
Over the past decade, Dr. Eaton has developed a program of research examining mindfulness- and compassion-based interventions, novel neurobehavioral treatments, and MDMA-assisted therapy for Veterans with PTSD and co-occurring alcohol use disorder (AUD). Her prior work has focused extensively on moral injury and self-compassion in combat Veterans, including pilot studies evaluating Mindful Self-Compassion interventions for Veterans with co-occurring PTSD-SUD.
Dr. Eaton currently serves as Principal Investigator on a Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development (RR&D) Merit Award, “MDMA-Assisted Therapy for Veterans with PTSD and Alcohol Use Disorder: A Randomized Placebo-Controlled Trial.” This project represents the first VA-funded psychedelic-assisted therapy trials in decades and examines the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of MDMA-assisted therapy for Veterans with co-occurring PTSD and AUD.
Prior to the Merit Award, Dr. Eaton received pilot funding through Brown University’s Office of the Vice President for Research and the COBRE Center for Addiction and Disease Risk Exacerbation (CADRE) to conduct the first open-label pilot trial of MDMA-assisted therapy for Veterans with PTSD-AUD. This line of research integrates clinical outcomes with investigations of neuroimmune and neurobiological mechanisms, including neuroinflammation, white matter integrity, functional connectivity, and inflammatory biomarkers.
In addition to her MDMA-assisted therapy research, Dr. Eaton has served as Co-Investigator on studies examining stellate ganglion block paired with exposure therapy for combat-related PTSD, as well as mindfulness-based interventions for chronic pain and trauma-related distress. Her work has been featured in national media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, Military Times, APA Monitor on Psychology, and WebMD.
