Sarah Patterson, MD

ADJUNCT INSTRUCTOR, Medicine
School of Medicine
+1 415 353-2530

Dr. Patterson is a rheumatology physician scientist in the UCSF Department of Medicine and part of the research faculty at the UCSF Osher Center for Integrative Health (OCIH). She pursued her undergraduate education at the University of California, Berkeley, and earned her MD from UCSF. She then completed Internal Medicine residency, Rheumatology fellowship, and a postdoctoral research fellowship in Integrative Health at UCSF. She joined the Rheumatology Division at UCSF as faculty in 2019 and became a UCSF Osher Center core research faculty member in 2022.

Dr. Patterson’s research aims to advance the understanding and management of rheumatic diseases by determining the impact of psychosocial stress and lifestyle factors—including physical activity, nutrition, and sleep—on disease course. Though people living with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) consistently express interest in measures that can be taken to complement pharmacologic therapies, there is limited data regarding the effects of lifestyle interventions on inflammatory pathways and disease outcomes in these conditions. Dr. Patterson is working to address this gap by examining stress and stress resilience effects on inflammatory pathways and clinical outcomes in RA and SLE. She is currently the PI for a pilot randomized controlled trial testing a mindfulness-based intervention to improve symptoms and disease activity in RA. She is also committed to translating her research into improvements in patient-centered rheumatology care, and to that end she examines the application of integrative health approaches to address unmet needs among people living with rheumatic conditions.

In her clinical work, Dr. Patterson specializes in SLE and combining evidence-based integrative health approaches with standard of care disease modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs). She established one of the first university-based integrative rheumatology clinics, which is based at the UCSF Osher Center. She provides direct patient care in the UCSF Lupus Clinic, the UCSF Osher Center Clinic, and in the UCSF hospital when she is attending on the inpatient rheumatology consult service.

Publications: 

Physical inactivity exacerbates pathologic inflammatory signalling at the single cell level in patients with systemic lupus.

EBioMedicine

Patterson SL, Van Phan H, Ye CJ, Lanata C, González SC, Park J, Criswell LA, Barbour KE, Yazdany J, Dall'Era M, Sirota M, Katz P, Langelier CR

Cell-Specific Transposable Element and Gene Expression Analysis Across Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Phenotypes.

ACR open rheumatology

Cutts Z, Patterson S, Maliskova L, Taylor KE, Ye CJ, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Criswell LA, Fragiadakis GK, Langelier C, Capra JA, Sirota M, Lanata CM

Positive psychosocial factors may protect against perceived stress in people with systemic lupus erythematosus with and without trauma history.

Lupus science & medicine

DeQuattro K, Trupin L, Patterson S, Rush S, Gordon C, Greenlund KJ, Barbour KE, Lanata C, Criswell LA, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Katz PP

The association of trauma with self-reported flares and disease activity in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).

Rheumatology (Oxford, England)

Katz P, Patterson SL, DeQuattro K, Lanata CM, Barbour KE, Greenlund KJ, Gordon C, Criswell LA, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J

Clinical and biological heterogeneity of multisystem inflammatory syndrome in adults following SARS-CoV-2 infection: a case series.

Frontiers in medicine

Barth KE, Spottiswoode N, Hurabielle C, Subbaraj L, COMET Consortium, Calfee CS, Matthay MA, French S, Connolly A, Hewitt SM, Vannella KM, Barnett C, Langelier CR, Patterson S

2022 American College of Rheumatology Guideline for Exercise, Rehabilitation, Diet, and Additional Integrative Interventions for Rheumatoid Arthritis.

Arthritis care & research

England BR, Smith BJ, Baker NA, Barton JL, Oatis CA, Guyatt G, Anandarajah A, Carandang K, Chan KK, Constien D, Davidson E, Dodge CV, Bemis-Dougherty A, Everett S, Fisher N, Fraenkel L, Goodman SM, Lewis J, Menzies V, Moreland LW, Navarro-Millan I, Patterson S, Phillips LR, Shah N, Singh N, White D, AlHeresh R, Barbour KE, Bye T, Guglielmo D, Haberman R, Johnson T, Kleiner A, Lane CY, Li LC, Master H, Pinto D, Poole JL, Steinbarger K, Sztubinski D, Thoma L, Tsaltskan V, Turgunbaev M, Wells C, Turner AS, Treadwell JR

Perceived Stress and Prediction of Worse Disease Activity and Symptoms in a Multiracial, Multiethnic Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Cohort.

Arthritis care & research

Patterson S, Trupin L, Hartogensis W, DeQuattro K, Lanata C, Gordon C, Barbour KE, Greenlund KJ, Dall'Era M, Yazdany J, Katz P

Physical Activity Associates with Lower Systemic Inflammatory Gene Expression in Rheumatoid Arthritis.

The Journal of rheumatology

Patterson SL, Sun S, Rychkov D, Katz P, Tsitsiklis A, Nakamura MC, Serpa PH, Langelier CR, Sirota M

Physical Inactivity Independently Predicts Incident Depression in a Multi-Racial/Ethnic Systemic Lupus Cohort.

Arthritis care & research

Patterson SL, Trupin L, Yazdany J, Dall'Era M, Lanata C, Dequattro K, Hartogensis W, Katz P

Increased rates of secondary bacterial infections, including Enterococcus bacteremia, in patients hospitalized with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

Infection control and hospital epidemiology

DeVoe C, Segal MR, Wang L, Stanley K, Madera S, Fan J, Schouest J, Graham-Ojo R, Nichols A, Prasad PA, Ghale R, Love C, Abe-Jones Y, Kangelaris KN, Patterson SL, Yokoe DS, Langelier CR

Measures of Psychosocial Stress and Stressful Exposures.

Arthritis care & research

Patterson SL, Sagui-Henson S, Prather AA

Gaps in Ambulatory Patient Safety for Immunosuppressive Specialty Medications.

Joint Commission journal on quality and patient safety

Patterson S, Schmajuk G, Evans M, Aggarwal I, Izadi Z, Gianfrancesco M, Yazdany J

Obesity Independently Associates with Worse Patient-Reported Outcomes in Women with Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Arthritis care & research

Patterson SL, Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Yazdany J, Katz P

Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PJP) prophylaxis patterns among patients with rheumatic diseases receiving high-risk immunosuppressant drugs.

Seminars in arthritis and rheumatism

Schmajuk G, Jafri K, Evans M, Shiboski S, Gianfrancesco M, Izadi Z, Patterson SL, Aggarwal I, Sarkar U, Dudley RA, Yazdany J

A Young Woman With Sudden Urinary Retention and Sensory Deficits.

Arthritis care & research

Patterson SL, Jafri K, Narvid JA, Margaretten M

Neuromyelitis Optica.

Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America

Patterson SL, Goglin SE

Central Nervous System Manifestations of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

Rheumatic diseases clinics of North America

Jafri K, Patterson SL, Lanata C

Antimalarial myopathy in a systemic lupus erythematosus patient with quadriparesis and seizures: a case-based review.

Clinical rheumatology

Jafri K, Zahed H, Wysham KD, Patterson S, Nolan AL, Bucknor MD, Chaganti RK

Cortisol patterns are associated with T cell activation in HIV.

PloS one

Patterson S, Moran P, Epel E, Sinclair E, Kemeny ME, Deeks SG, Bacchetti P, Acree M, Epling L, Kirschbaum C, Hecht FM

When Is "Pseudo-Ludwig's Angina" Associated With Coagulopathy Also a "Pseudo" Hemorrhage?

Journal of investigative medicine high impact case reports

Lovallo E, Patterson S, Erickson M, Chin C, Blanc P, Durrani TS