Psychosocial Treatment Research
For more information about these and other ongoing Psychosocial research projects please see the Psychosocial Treatment Laboratory web page at http://med.stanford.edu/school/Psychiatry
/PSTreatLab/index.html
Trauma
The Psychosocial Treatment Laboratory has conducted research on the impact of natural trauma survivors, the development of dissociative reactions to trauma such as Acute and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or Dissociative Identity Disorder, the effects of childhood sexual abuse and related memories, and the use of group psychotherapy and hypnosis in treating trauma survivors. Dr. Spiegel and his colleagues have demonstrated the prevalence of dissociative reactions in response to the Loma Prieta earthquake, witnessing an execution, the Oakland Berkeley firestorm, and being in an office building where there was a shooting rampage resulting in multiple deaths and injuries. In addition, the interface between disease and trauma leads us to ask two opposing questions: 1) does unresolved trauma contribute to the development of disease and 2) does the experience of having a disease and treatment qualify as a traumatic stressor?
HIV
We are conducting trials of the application of supportive/ expressive group psychotherapy to populations with HIV infection or at risk for it. We have gone to special efforts to recruit women with HIV infection. Our initial data indicate that the intervention is quite effective in reducing distress and improving coping. We are currently expanding a study of the effects of two different kinds of psychotherapy for women with histories of sexual or physical abuse who are at risk for HIV infection.
- Research to Evaluate the Effects of Group Psychotherapy for People with HIV
- Model of Hypercortisolism in Major Depressions
- Group Interventions to Prevent HIV in High Risk Women (abstract located under Trauma Studies)
Cancer
The Psychosocial Treatment Laboratory is engaged in numerous research projects designed to study the mind/body relationship. We examine the effects of stress on the one hand and interventions such as supportive/expressive group psychotherapy and hypnosis on emotional well-being and coping on the other. We then link possible effects of these psychological and social variables on mediating physiological systems, including the endocrine, immune, and autonomic nervous systems. Finally, we examine effects of these interventions and physiological systems on survival time. Studies in progress are described below.
- Effects of Psychosocial Treatment on Cancer Survival (A current attempt to replicate the original Metastatic Breast Cancer Survival Study)
- Research Network on Mind-body Interactions
- Do Community Cancer Support Groups Reduce Physiological Stress?
- The Role that Brain Regulation of Stress Hormones has on Cancer Progresssion in Metastatic Breast Cancer
- Research on Stress and Etiology of Lung Cancer
- Emotional Coding Lab - Stanford
- Needs Assessment in Women Whose Relatives Have Breast or Ovarian Cancer
- Do Community Cancer Groups Enhance Well-Being?
Hypnosis
Hypnosis is a state of highly focused attention (absorption) with a reduction in peripheral awareness (dissociation) and a heightened sensitivity to social cues. Studies have shown it to be highly effective as a tool for pain and anxiety reduction, and well as certain kinds of habit control. We are examining the effect of hypnosis on perception in the brain, based on event-related potential studies we and others have done showing that hypnotic alteration in vision, hearing, or physical sensation alters the response of the relevant sensory association cortex to stimuli. This means that hypnotic analgesia actually reduces pain, not just the response to it. We are conducting clinical and basic neurophysiology trials.
- Alternative Treatments for Long-Term Depressed: Mood: Meditation and Hypnosis
- Evaluation of Two Psychological Interventions for Children Undergoing A Voiding Cystourethrogram (VCUG)
Internal Staff Login