Professor Alain Brunet
Post-doc, University of California San Fransisco, PhD, Université de Montréal, MSc, University of Montreal, BA, Concordia University
Director
Email: TI_Director@usc.edu.au
Location: UniSC Thompson Institute, BT-TI-1.05
Professor Alain Brunet is the Director of the National PTSD Centre and UniSC’s Thompson Institute.
He has investigated the impact of trauma exposure on individuals for more than 25 years, with a special focus on characterising risk factors and developing effective treatments.
Professor Brunet has developed a novel treatment called Reconsolidation TherapyTM which has been used -among other things- with victims of terrorism in the Bataclan (Paris, France). This treatment made the top ten discoveries list for 2008 in QS magazine.
In 2001, as a post-doctoral fellow, Professor Brunet developed the Peritraumatic Distress Inventory (PDI), the first instrument to assess the recalled amount of distress experienced at the time of a traumatic event. The PDI is now used by more than 40 teams across the world (370 publications) and has been translated into 12 languages.
Professor Brunet is a past co-editor of the Journal of Traumatic Stress (2010-2017), the premier specialty journal in the field of traumatic stress. He was vice-president (2011-2012) and board member of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (2010-2017, ISTSS).
He is a co-recipient of several grants, including from the Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR) and the U.S. Army to pursue work on Reconsolidation Therapy for PTSD.
In 2006, he was listed on MacLean's Magazine honor roll as one of the 39 Canadians who make the world a better place to live. He was named "Personality of the Week" by the Montreal newspaper La Presse (2006). He was listed by GEO Magazine (2015) among the people who are changing our world for the better.
Professor Brunet is a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2021). In 2022 he won the career award of the Canadian Psychological Association - Traumatic Stress Section. In 2023 he won the Leo-Pariseau Career Award which annually recognises the excellence and influence of an individual's work in the field of biological or health sciences for the development of reconsolidation-based therapies. His expertise in trauma and stressor related disorders is ranked among the top1% in the world by Expertscape for several years in a row, and the top 2% by Elsevier-Stanford (2020-24).
Professor Brunet as a background as a clinical psychologist.
Research
Publications
- Reduction of PTSD symptoms with pre-reactivation propranolol… (Brunet et al. 2018).
- Impairing memory reconsolidation with propranolol in healthy and clinical samples: A meta-analysis (Pigeon et al., 2022).
- Mental disorder symptoms among public safety personnel in Canada… (Carleton et al., 2018)
- Coping during pregnancy following exposure to a natural disaster… (Chen et al., 2020)
- A narrative review of the epigenetics of PTSD…(Cao-Lei et al., 2022)
Research Summary
Current Research grants
Project name: Enhancing Ukraine’s capacities to treat trauma-related disorders
Investigator: Alain Brunet & Mykhaylo Pustovoyt
Funding body: NATO
Year: 2024
Focus: To lead a group of scholars who give a 1-week workshop on the treatment of PTSD.
Funding amount: 70 000 euros.
Potential research projects:
- Systematic reviews and meta-analyses
- PTSD measure validation
- Co-supervisions with other TI/NPRC investigators
- Reconsolidation Therapy research
- Online surveys
Professional
Awards and memberships
Recognitions
- Expertise in trauma and stressor related disorders ranked among top 1 percent in the world by Expertscape
- Leo-Pariseau Prize, Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS), 2023
- Listed by GEO Magazine among the people who are changing the world for the better 2015
- MacLean’s honor roll as on of 39 Canadians who make the world a better place to live, 2006
- Top Ten Discoveries List, Québec Science, 2008
Memberships
- Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS)