# CSR&D Research Career Development Transition Award Application

> **NIH VA IK4** · VETERANS AFFAIRS MED CTR SAN FRANCISCO · 2022 · —

## Abstract

There is an “epidemic of loneliness” with 20% of civilians and up to 50% of veterans reporting feeling lonely or
socially isolated. This is clinically important because loneliness and social isolation are strong predictors of
worse physical health and early mortality. Mental illness is intimately entwined with this epidemic because it
both causes and is worsened by loneliness and social isolation. It is the social deficits of mental illness that
most strongly contribute to loneliness and social isolation. These social deficits include difficulty understanding
other people’s behavior and difficulty behaving appropriately in social situations. Despite their importance,
these social deficits are poorly understood at the neural and behavioral levels and are difficult to quantify.
Moreover, available treatments for them are inadequate. I am the Director of the Bonding and Attunement in
Neuropsychiatric Disorders (BAND) lab, which comprises one junior faculty member supported by a CSR&D
Career Development Award, 5 postdoctoral fellows including MDs and PhDs, 4 graduate students, 6 paid
research assistants, over 20 volunteers. We believe the key to mental health and well-being starts with
strong relationships. Our mission is to develop novel pharmacological and cognitive interventions for
mental illness that enable patients to strengthen their connections to other people and the world. Our
work has primarily focused on understanding the psychological, behavioral, physiological, and neural effects of
administration of the neuropeptide oxytocin across multiple psychiatric illnesses. For example, we have
conducted numerous studies determining the acute effects of oxytocin administration in individuals with
schizophrenia. One highlight of this work is that we found that a single administration of oxytocin to individuals
with schizophrenia normalized neural activity during high-level social cognitive processing and that this
normalization was associated with improved behavioral performance. This work led to a VA CSR&D Merit
Award to conduct the largest randomized clinical trial of repeated administration of oxytocin in schizophrenia to
date. We have also conducted studies investigating oxytocin as a potential treatment for individuals with
alcohol, opioid, and stimulant use disorders, and co-occurring post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
alcohol use disorder (a common and difficult-to-treat comorbidity). We also recently completed a large
laboratory-based study in healthy individuals to determine whether acute oxytocin administration can
accelerate the development of team cohesion. This work led us to hypothesize that pharmacological
treatments that affect social processes could be paired with psychosocial treatments to possibly
achieve synergistically positive outcomes. To investigate this possibility, we have conducted studies pairing
administration of various drugs with social effects, including oxytocin, 3,4-methylenedioxy-methamphetamine
(MDMA), an...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10490339
- **Project number:** 5IK4CX002090-03
- **Recipient organization:** VETERANS AFFAIRS MED CTR SAN FRANCISCO
- **Principal Investigator:** Josh Woolley
- **Activity code:** IK4 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-07-01 → 2025-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10490339

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10490339, CSR&D Research Career Development Transition Award Application (5IK4CX002090-03). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10490339. Licensed CC0.

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