Biography
Dr. Sanjuan is a clinical psychologist and a scientist-practitioner focused on improving health equity and clarifying the underlying processes of substance use disorders, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and the intersection between stress/PTSD and alcohol/other substance use disorders (AUD/SUD) and on improving SUD and PTSD treatments, especially for pregnant and parenting people.
Personal Statement
Dr. Sanjuan’s leadership roles include serving as the co-lead for Community Engagement Module and the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Executive Officer for the UNM HSC Southwest Center for Advancing Clinical & Translational Innovation (SW CACTI) formerly known as the Clinical and Translational Science Center (CTSC). She also is an active member of the National NIH, Healthy Brain and Child Development Consortium (HBCD): Ethics, Legal, and Policy and the Transitions in Care Working Groups.
Her current research program branches in two related directions. The first branch focuses on perinatal mental health, particularly PTSD and substance use and maternal outcomes. This research aims to find interventions that improve perinatal mental health outcomes (such as doulas, CHWs, or more training of providers to conduct screening, referral, and specialized treatment for perinatal mental health disorders) and often utilizes ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine temporal associations between PTSD, parenting emotions, and SUD. The second branch of her research harnesses neuroimaging to examine neural contributions to the PTSD and emotion regulation/stress/AUD relationship. Better understanding how PTSD and substance use problems are interrelated can help guide interventions and help patients understand their feelings and behaviors. It is critical to identify and understand established and novel interventions that help pregnant and parenting people to manage mental health challenges (e.g. doula support, prenatal yoga/mindfulness, mobile health technology).
Dr. Sanjuan’s current research is anchored in community-engaged research methods and developed in close partnerships with New Mexico’s amazing community-based doula organizations, the NM Department of Health, and Postpartum Support International. In the past few years, her research and service work in this area has extended to perinatal mental health disturbances beyond substance use and PTSD (e.g. postpartum depression, anxiety, psychosis) and on influencing local and national policies impacting people during the perinatal period.
Dr. Sanjuan’s teaching activities are centered on her role in curriculum development as a HUB team member and the psychology expert for the Improving Perinatal Health (IPH) and the Substance Use in Pregnancy UNM teleECHO Programs. Additionally, she is working to locally disseminate and evaluate core and advanced perinatal mental health training programs developed and provided by Postpartum Support International. She also strives to create immersive and extensive research experiences for undergraduate and graduate students in her lab. She has expanded her teaching mission to the community through local lectures and workshops. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in NM and provides clinical supervision to UNM clinical psychology graduate students.
Areas of Specialty
Perinatal Mental Health
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Alcohol and other Substance Use
Health Disparities
Certifications
Perinatal Mental Health Certification - PMH-C
Gender
Female
Languages
- English
- Spanish
Research and Scholarship
Poehlmann, J., Johnson, E., Ossorio, P., Highsmith, K., Harden, B., Terplan, M., Sanjuan, P., McKelvey, L., Coles, C., Chaiyachati, B., Shlafer, R., Walker, P., Pritzl, K., Anandha Krishnan, C., Averill, S., Das, S., Torres Gomez, S., Hilliard, F., Gannon, B., Thompson, W. (in press) Retaining infants and young children who experience transitions in care in longitudinal studies of child health and development: Considerations from the HEALthy Brain and Child Development study. Infant Mental Health Journal: Infancy and Early Childhood
Henry, M., Christian, K., Cairo, G., Leeman, L., Sanjuan, P. M. (in press) I wouldn’t for myself; I’m quitting for her”: Pregnant Hispanic Mothers’ SUD and Trauma Experiences. Journal of Addictions & Offender Counseling.
Thomas, S. A., Board, A., Pabst, L., Dorsey, A., Deputy, N. P., Terplan, M., Chen, M., Kariisa, M., Wachman, W. M., Wright, T. G., Shakib, J. H., Benninger, K. L., Seligman, N. S., O’Connor, T., G., Sanjuan, P. M., et al. (in press) Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome in the MATernaL and Infant clinical NetworK. Hospital Pediatrics.
Roberts, D., Candelaria-Cook, F., Mun, D., Myers, O., Schendel, M., Alsameen, M., Sanjuan, P., Cerros, C., Hill, D., & Stephen, J. (2025) Changes in Alpha Spectral Events throughout Development and with Prenatal Exposure to Alcohol. Clinical Neurophysiology.DOI:10.2139/ssrn.5128556
Board, A., Vivolo-Kantor, A., Kim, S. Y., Tran, E. L., Thomas, S. A., Terplan, M., Smid, M. C., Sanjuan, P M., et al. (2025) Using ICD Codes Alone May Misclassify Overdoses Among Perinatal People. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 68(3):563-570. DOI: 10.1016/j.amepre.2024.12.001
Kruger, E., Rodriguez, A., Leeman L., & Sanjuan, P. M. (2025) Prenatal substance use and mental health comorbidities predict continued use. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 39(3), 301-310.https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0001017
Alexander, K., Terplan, M., Sanjuan, P., & Preston, K. (2023). The use of ecological momentary assessment methods with people receiving medication for opioid use disorder: A systematic review. Current Addiction Reports. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-023-00492-5
Miele, K., Kim, S., Jones, R., Rembert, J., Wachman, E. M., Shrestha, H., Henninger, M., Kimes, T., Schneider, P., Sivaloganathan, V., Sward, K., Deshmukh, V., Sanjuan, P. M., et al. (2023). Maternal and Child Health Outcomes Associated with Use of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder during Pregnancy: MATLINK. Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, 72(3): 1-14.
Henry*, M., Sanjuan*, P. M., Cacari-Stone, L. M., Cairo, G. F., Lohr-Valdez, A., Leeman, L. (2021). Alcohol and other substance use disorder recovery during pregnancy among patients with posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms: A qualitative study. Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports, 1. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dadr.2021.100013.
* equal first authorship
Sanjuan, P. M., Fokas, K., Tonigan, J. S., Henry, M., Christian, K., Rodriguez, A., Larson, J., Yonke, N., Leeman, L. (2021). Prenatal maternal PTSD as a risk factor for adverse for adverse birth weight and gestational age outcomes: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of Affective Disorders, 295, 530-540.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2021.08.079
Beasley, L. O., Ciciolla, L., Jespersen, J. E., Chiaf, A. L., Schmidt, M., Shreffler, K. M., Breslin, F. J., Bakhireva, L. N., Sanjuan, P. M., Stephen, J. M., Coles, C. D., Chambers, C. D., Kable, J. A., Leeman, L., Singer, L. T., Zellner, J., Morris, A. S., & Croff, J. M. (2020). Best Practices for Engaging Pregnant and Postpartum Women at Risk of Substance Use in Longitudinal Research Studies: A Qualitative Examination of Participant Preferences. Adversity and Resilience Science, 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42844-020-00019-1. PMCID: PMC7592139.
Sanjuan, P. M., Pearson, M. R., Fokas, K., & Leeman, L. M. (2020). A mother’s bond: An ecological momentary assessment study of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms and substance craving during pregnancy. Psychology of Addictive Behaviors, 34(2), 269-280 https://doi.org/10.1037/adb0000543 PMCID: PMC7064398.
Sanjuan, P. M., Pearson, M. R., Poremba, C., Amaro, H., & Leeman, L. M. (2019). An ecological momentary assessment study examining posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms, prenatal bonding, and substance use among pregnant women. Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 195, 33-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2018.11.019 PMCID: PMC6359965
Sanjuan, P. M., Andrews, C., & Claus, E. D. (2018). Abnormal target detection and novelty processing neural response in posttraumatic stress disorder. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, 85, 54-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pnpbp.2018.04.003 PMCID: PMC5962434
Sanjuan, P. M., Poremba, C., Flynn, L. R., Savich, R., Annett. R. D., & Stephen, J. (2016). Association between theta power in 6-month old infants at rest and maternal PTSD severity: A pilot study. Neuroscience Letters, 630, 120-26. PMCID: PMC5014373.