
Assoc. Professor In Residence
M_Psych-Core-Rsch
+1 415 221-4810 ext. 24959
People who experience traumatic or enduring psychological stress are more likely to develop psychiatric disorders as well as cardiovascular, autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorders. Our research is focused on revealing how psychological stress drives the development of mental and physical disorders. Specifically, we aim to identify the psychological and biological factors that account for the adverse effects of psychological stress, and ultimately to drive the development of targeted interventions to reduce such negative effects of stress. To this end, we are focused on uncovering stress-related changes in biological systems and on examining how such changes impact brain function and structure as well as specific disease outcomes.
Publications
Associations between PTSD and protective behaviors during the COVID-19 pandemic: Results from the Mind Your Heart Study.
Journal of health psychology
PACAP a mediator of inflammation following trauma exposure and mild traumatic brain injury: Differential effects in males and females.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Psilocybin therapy for mood dysfunction in Parkinson's disease: an open-label pilot trial.
Neuropsychopharmacology : official publication of the American College of Neuropsychopharmacology
Modifying Informed Consent to Help Address Functional Unmasking in Psychedelic Clinical Trials.
JAMA psychiatry
Group integrated exercise versus recovery class for veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder: a randomized clinical trial.
BMC psychiatry
A systematic review of participant diversity in psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy trials.
Psychiatry research
Measuring and Modifying Threat-Related Attention Bias in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: An Attention Bias Modification Study.
Depression and anxiety
Childhood trauma is linked to epigenetic age deceleration in young adults with previous youth residential care placements.
European journal of psychotraumatology
Lifetime Trauma Exposure and Arthritis in Older Adults.
Psychosomatic medicine
A Plea for Nuance: Should People with a Family History of Bipolar Disorder Be Excluded from Clinical Trials of Psilocybin Therapy?
Psychedelic medicine (New Rochelle, N.Y.)
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy: where is the psychotherapy research?
Psychopharmacology
Content analysis of Reddit posts about coadministration of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors and psilocybin mushrooms.
Psychopharmacology
Association of psychiatric disorders with clinical diagnosis of long COVID in US veterans.
Psychological medicine
Psychological resilience to lifetime trauma and risk for cardiometabolic disease and mortality in older adults: A longitudinal cohort study.
Journal of psychosomatic research
Psychological Resilience to Trauma and Risk of COVID-19 Infection and Somatic Symptoms Across 2 Years.
Psychosomatic medicine
Post-traumatic stress disorder and risk for hospitalization and death following COVID-19 infection.
Translational psychiatry
Identifying correlates of suicide ideation during the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional analysis of 148 sociodemographic and pandemic-specific factors.
Journal of psychiatric research
Adverse and traumatic exposures, posttraumatic stress disorder, telomere length, and hair cortisol - Exploring associations in a high-risk sample of young adult residential care leavers.
Brain, behavior, & immunity - health
Dispositional optimism and positive health outcomes: Moving from epidemiology to behavioral interventions.
Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
Higher hair cortisol concentrations associated with shorter leukocyte telomere length in high-risk young adults.
Scientific reports
Prior trauma exposure, posttraumatic stress symptoms, and COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy.
Journal of psychiatric research
Association of Psychiatric Disorders With Incidence of SARS-CoV-2 Breakthrough Infection Among Vaccinated Adults.
JAMA network open
Worse sleep, worsening post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Poor sleep quality associated with increases in PTSD symptoms amongst those experiencing high threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Journal of sleep research
Posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms associated with protective and risky behaviors for coronavirus disease 2019.
Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
Psilocybin for Trauma-Related Disorders.
Current topics in behavioral neurosciences
Clusters of COVID-19 protective and risky behaviors and their associations with pandemic, socio-demographic, and mental health factors in the United States.
Preventive Medicine Reports
Effects of oxytocin administration on fear-potentiated acoustic startle in co-occurring PTSD and alcohol use disorder: A randomized clinical trial.
Psychiatry research
Ventromedial and insular cortical volume moderates the relationship between BDNF Val66Met and threat sensitivity.
Journal of psychiatric research
COVID-19 related moral injury: Associations with pandemic-related perceived threat and risky and protective behaviors.
Journal of psychiatric research
The Stress of Caring-Resilience and HPA-Axis Activity in Hair Samples of Youth Residential Caregivers.
Frontiers in psychiatry
Compounding Stress: Childhood Adversity as a Risk Factor for Adulthood Trauma Exposure in the Health and Retirement Study.
Journal of traumatic stress
Relationships of Inflammation Trajectories with White Matter Volume and Integrity in Midlife.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Impulsivity as a multifactorial construct and its relationship to PTSD severity and threat sensitivity.
Psychiatry research
Automatic Imitation in Comorbid PTSD & Alcohol Use Disorder and Controls: an RCT of Intranasal Oxytocin.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Validation of sleep measurement in a multisensor consumer grade wearable device in healthy young adults.
Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine
Social integration and inflammation in individuals with and without posttraumatic stress disorder.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Randomized Controlled Trial Testing Mobile-Based Attention-Bias Modification for Posttraumatic Stress Using Personalized Word Stimuli.
Clinical psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science
Randomized controlled trial testing mobile-based attention-bias modification for posttraumatic stress using personalized word stimuli
Clinical Psychological Science
Fact or artefact? Childhood adversity and adulthood trauma in the U.S. population-based Health and Retirement Study.
European journal of psychotraumatology
Effects of Oxytocin Administration on Cue-Induced Craving in Co-occurring Alcohol Use Disorder and PTSD: A Within-Participant Randomized Clinical Trial.
Alcoholism, clinical and experimental research
Gender Differences in Threat Biases: Trauma Type Matters in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Journal of traumatic stress
Oxytocin increases eye gaze in schizophrenia.
Schizophrenia research
Adverse Childhood Experiences and Telomere Length a Look Into the Heterogeneity of Findings-A Narrative Review.
Frontiers in neuroscience
Child abuse interacts with hippocampal and corpus callosum volume on psychophysiological response to startling auditory stimuli in a sample of veterans.
Journal of psychiatric research
Comparing anxiety and depression to obesity and smoking as predictors of major medical illnesses and somatic symptoms.
Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association
Altered overnight levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines in men and women with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Association among anterior cingulate cortex volume, psychophysiological response, and PTSD diagnosis in a Veteran sample.
Neurobiology of learning and memory
Effects of Threat Context, Trauma History, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Status on Physiological Startle Reactivity in Gulf War Veterans.
Journal of traumatic stress
Personalizing Affective Stimuli Using a Recommender Algorithm: An Example with Threatening Words for Trauma Exposed Populations.
Cognitive Therapy and Research
Gender differences in longitudinal relationships between depression and anxiety symptoms and inflammation in the health and retirement study.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
The interaction of BDNF Val66Met, PTSD, and child abuse on psychophysiological reactivity and HPA axis function in a sample of Gulf War Veterans.
Journal of affective disorders
Personalizing affective stimuli using a recommender algorithm: An example with threatening words for trauma-exposed populations
Cognitive Therapy and Research
Associations of Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder With Inflammation and Endothelial Function: On Timing, Specificity, and Mechanisms.
Biological psychiatry
Sleep and hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis responses to metyrapone in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Dementia Risk in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: the Relevance of Sleep-Related Abnormalities in Brain Structure, Amyloid, and Inflammation.
Current psychiatry reports
Current posttraumatic stress disorder and exaggerated threat sensitivity associated with elevated inflammation in the Mind Your Heart Study.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Adverse Childhood Events, and Buccal Cell Telomere Length in Elderly Swiss Former Indentured Child Laborers.
Frontiers in psychiatry
PTSD is associated with elevated inflammation: any impact on clinical practice?
Evidence-based mental health
Alteration of immune markers in a group of melancholic depressed patients and their response to electroconvulsive therapy.
Journal of affective disorders
Becoming an Academic Researcher in Psychiatry: A View From the Trenches.
Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry
Associations of childhood adversity and adulthood trauma with C-reactive protein: A cross-sectional population-based study.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Metabolic risk factors and posttraumatic stress disorder: the role of sleep in young, healthy adults.
Psychosomatic medicine
Anxiety is associated with higher levels of global DNA methylation and altered expression of epigenetic and interleukin-6 genes.
Psychiatric genetics
Perceived life stress exposure modulates reward-related medial prefrontal cortex responses to acute stress in depression.
Journal of affective disorders
Anger is associated with increased IL-6 stress reactivity in women, but only among those low in social support.
International journal of behavioral medicine
Altered inflammatory activity associated with reduced hippocampal volume and more severe posttraumatic stress symptoms in Gulf War veterans.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Hyperinsulinemic response to oral glucose challenge in individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Elevated risk for autoimmune disorders in iraq and afghanistan veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Biological psychiatry
Sex differences in neurosteroid and hormonal responses to metyrapone in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Psychopharmacology
Oxytocin administration enhances controlled social cognition in patients with schizophrenia.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Inflammation and depression: unraveling the complex interplay in inflammatory bowel disease.
Journal of pediatric gastroenterology and nutrition
Implicit measurement of positive and negative future thinking as a predictor of depressive symptoms and hopelessness.
Consciousness and cognition
Suicidal ideation is associated with elevated inflammation in patients with major depressive disorder.
Depression and anxiety
Good stress, bad stress and oxidative stress: insights from anticipatory cortisol reactivity.
Psychoneuroendocrinology
Exaggerated neurobiological sensitivity to threat as a mechanism linking anxiety with increased risk for diseases of aging.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
Educational attainment and late life telomere length in the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Lifetime exposure to traumatic psychological stress is associated with elevated inflammation in the Heart and Soul Study.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Stress appraisals and cellular aging: a key role for anticipatory threat in the relationship between psychological stress and telomere length.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Does cellular aging relate to patterns of allostasis? An examination of basal and stress reactive HPA axis activity and telomere length.
Physiology & behavior
Shorter leukocyte telomere length in midlife women with poor sleep quality.
Journal of aging research
Physical activity moderates effects of stressor-induced rumination on cortisol reactivity.
Psychosomatic medicine
Childhood trauma associated with short leukocyte telomere length in posttraumatic stress disorder.
Biological psychiatry
Transcriptional control of monocyte gene expression in post-traumatic stress disorder.
Disease markers
Suppressed monocyte gene expression profile in men versus women with PTSD.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Clinical anxiety, cortisol and interleukin-6: evidence for specificity in emotion-biology relationships.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Black sheep get the blues: a psychobiological model of social rejection and depression.
Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews
Pessimism correlates with leukocyte telomere shortness and elevated interleukin-6 in post-menopausal women.
Brain, behavior, and immunity
Access to social support in life and in the laboratory: combined impact on cardiovascular reactivity to stress and state anxiety.
Journal of health psychology
Quality of life predicts outcome in a heart failure disease management program.
International journal of cardiology
Factors that moderate the effects of social support on cardiovascular reactivity to stress
Int J Psychol. & Psychol. Therapy
Social support and loneliness in college students: effects on pulse pressure reactivity to acute stress.
International journal of adolescent medicine and health
Citation Analysis of Skinner's Verbal Behavior: 1984-2004.
The Behavior analyst
Your best interests at heart?
The Psychologist