Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) commonly experience sleep disturbance. Such disturbances can have a birdrectional effect in those with PTSD –interrupted sleep due to hypervigilance and nightmares are common symptoms of PTSD, and poor sleep is associated with a worse course of PTSD. Sleep disturbance can potentially be a prognostic factor in overall outcome […]
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is linked to altered physiologic functioning, including increased blood pressure and heart rate, especially in response to stressors. Increased cardiovascular reactivity to trauma-related stressors may link PTSD to poorer cardiovascular health and thus an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Prior work by our lab suggests that these effects of trauma may […]
This project aims to understand how concerns about pregnancy, whether planning for a child or trying to avoid an unintended one, affect women’s sexual well-being. Despite public health goals to reduce unintended pregnancies and STDs (Higgins et al., 2009), and the importance of sexual health to overall quality of life (Flynn et al., 2016), little […]
Children with comorbid mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs) often require more intensive and coordinated care than those with mental health disorders alone. These two categories of disorders often present with comorbidity and engagement disparities in integrated behavioral health programs among this population remain poorly understood. This study examines differences in service utilization and attrition […]
Trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common in veteran and civilian populations. Meanwhile, observationally estimated half of people cared for at UW autonomic nervous system (ANS) disorder clinic have a history of trauma. Increasingly, research explains this observation through an evolving understanding of the complex interplay of peripheral and central catecholamine signaling that appear […]
Alcohol use disorder remains a major public health concern, with persistent disparities in treatment outcomes. Traditional interventions often fail to account for the heterogeneity of drinking triggers, limiting their effectiveness. This study aims to develop and evaluate an idiographic, mobile-based clinical tool to identify personalized triggers for alcohol use. Idiographic methods allow for individualized assessments […]
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use often go hand in hand, with many people using substances like cannabis to manage their symptoms. This concept, known as the self-medication hypothesis, suggests that people might use cannabis differently depending on the nature of their symptoms. Symptoms are classically split into domains – hyperarousal, emotional numbing, re-experiencing, […]
First-episode substance-induced psychosis (SIP) presents a clinical challenge in which treatment decisions cannot rely on evidence-based guidelines and long-term outcomes are not well understood. Preliminary findings from our retrospective study of psychiatry inpatients at Harborview Medical Center (HMC) suggest that patients with first-episode SIP had similar rehospitalization rates to those with first-episode psychosis (FEP) but […]
Schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BPD) are among the most heritable psychiatric conditions, yet their genetic foundations remain poorly understood. Historically, unraveling these disorders’ genetic architectures was limited by inadequate technology. However, breakthroughs in next-generation sequencing have recently produced expansive genomic datasets—including those from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC)—for SCZ and BD. Simultaneously, genomic foundation […]
This research project focused on existential distress (death anxiety, existential isolation, true-self incongruence, inauthenticity, low self-concept clarity, and limited future time perspective) among individuals with chronic pain, PTSD, and co-occurring chronic pain and PTSD.
