Jennifer J. Vasterling, PhD
Professor, Psychiatry
Biography
Dr. Vasterling serves as the Chief of Psychology at VA Boston Healthcare System. She is also a clinical investigator within the Behavioral Sciences Division of the VA National Center for PTSD. Dr. Vasterling obtained her Ph.D. in psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1988, subsequently completing pre- and post-doctoral training in clinical neuropsychology at the VA Boston Healthcare System/Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine.
Dr. Vasterling has served on the editorial boards of several journals, and currently serves on the board of Psychological Assessment. Her research has centered on neurocognitive and emotional changes that accompany war-zone deployment and posttraumatic stress responses. She is the lead editor of the sole book on the neuropsychology of PTSD and of a book on mild traumatic brain injury and PTSD. She is additionally an editor of a book addressing the mental health concerns of returning veterans.
Dr. Vasterling is the 2009 recipient of the American Psychological Association Trauma Psychology (Division 56) Distinguished Scientific Contributions Award. Her recent work, funded by the VA Cooperative Studies program and NIMH, involves longitudinal examination of neuropsychological and emotional outcomes of military deployment to Iraq and the mental health outcomes of their family members. She currently serves as President of the Society for Clinical Neuropsychology (Division 40 of the American Psychological Association).
Other Positions
- VA Boston Healthcare System
Education
- Vanderbilt University, PhD
- Louisiana State University, BS
Publications
- Published on 1/26/2025
Verfaellie M, Patt V, Lafleche G, Jones D, Vasterling JJ. Choosing certainty over risk: Associations of PTSD symptom severity with memory sampling during experiential decision making. J Anxiety Disord. 2025 Mar; 110:102979. PMID: 39889322.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 10/17/2024
Knoff AA, Vasterling JJ, Verfaellie M. Beyond trauma: a review of content and linguistic characteristics of nontrauma narratives in posttraumatic stress disorder. Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2024; 15(1):2407733. PMID: 39415679.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 6/24/2024
Verfaellie M, Patt V, Lafleche G, Vasterling JJ. Associations between PTSD and temporal discounting: The role of future thinking. J Behav Ther Exp Psychiatry. 2024 Dec; 85:101978. PMID: 38964185.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/12/2024
Raines AM, Clauss KE, Seidler D, Allan NP, Elhai JD, Vasterling JJ, Constans JI, Maieritsch KP, Franklin CL. A Bifactor Evaluation of Self-Report and Clinician-Administered Measures of PTSD in Veterans. Assessment. 2024 Dec; 31(8):1674-1686. PMID: 38347720.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/2/2024
Verfaellie M, Patt V, Lafleche G, Strang C, Vasterling JJ. Future thinking in PTSD: Preliminary evidence for altered event construction. Psychiatry Res. 2024 Mar; 333:115768. PMID: 38325161.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/1/2024
Verfaellie M, Patt V, Lafleche G, Hunsberger R, Vasterling JJ. Correction to: Imagining emotional future events in PTSD: clinical and neurocognitive correlates. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2024 Feb; 24(1):184-185. PMID: 38040864.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 9/12/2023
Verfaellie M, Patt V, Lafleche G, Hunsberger R, Vasterling JJ. Imagining emotional future events in PTSD: clinical and neurocognitive correlates. Cogn Affect Behav Neurosci. 2023 Oct; 23(5):1428-1444. PMID: 37700143.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/25/2023
MacDonald HZ, Franz MR, Kaiser AP, Lee LO, Lawrence AE, Fairbank JA, Vasterling JJ. Associations of Warzone Veteran and Intimate Partner PTSD Symptoms with Child Depression, Anxiety, Hyperactivity, and Conduct Problems. Mil Behav Health. 2023; 11(4):236-243. PMID: 38859978.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 8/22/2023
Vasterling JJ, Franz MR, Lee LO, Kaiser AP, Proctor SP, Marx BP, Schnurr PP, Ko J, Concato J, Aslan M. Early predictors of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder symptom trajectories in U.S. Army soldiers deployed to the Iraq war zone. J Trauma Stress. 2023 Oct; 36(5):955-967. PMID: 37608526.
Read at: PubMed - Published on 2/14/2022
Chiu C, Gnall K, Kaiser AP, Taft CT, Franz MR, Lee LO, Vasterling JJ. Neurocognitive Performance Predicts Future Partner Violence Among U.S. Iraq-and Afghanistan-deployed Army Soldiers and Veterans. Psychol Violence. 2022 May; 12(3):160-169. PMID: 38463935.
Read at: PubMed
View 148 more publications: View full profile at BUMC