Clinical psychology doctoral students awarded $3,000 grants

Clinical psychology doctoral students Jennifer Carty and Maisa Ziadni get funding to study a life-stress assessment for patients with chronic pelvic pain and unexplained medical symptoms

Can a novel, life-stress interview improve mind-body awareness and physical symptoms in chronically ill patients? Research being conducted by doctoral students and faculty in the Psychology Department at Wayne State hopes to answer this question.

Medically unexplained pain and other symptoms conditions, such as chronic pelvic pain, headaches, fibromyalgia, and irritable bowel syndrome, are common but costly and disabling ailments frequently treated in primary and tertiary care medical settings. Individuals with these illnesses not only experience symptoms such as pain, discomfort, and impaired physical functioning, but also are more likely to have experienced trauma, abuse, or victimization, or have emotional conflicts related to difficult relationships. Research has shown that unresolved stress or emotional conflicts can trigger or worsen pain and other physical symptoms, but assessment of the presence and role of psychological stress is rarely done in health care settings, where the focus in on medication, physical therapy, or referring patients out to mental health providers. When mental health is assessed in the medical clinic, it is typically done using brief screening questionnaires for depression and anxiety, which does not provide a holistic view of stress, emotions, and health; nor does it motivate patients to change or relieve their symptoms.

Jennifer Carty and Maisa Ziadni, who are both pursuing doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology, have each been awarded $3,000 grants from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation to investigate the feasibility, acceptability, and effectiveness of a novel life-stress interview given to patients in the medical clinic. The goal of the life-stress interview is to provide patients with a greater awareness of their health and symptoms throughout their life, the role that stress has played in their symptoms, and the value of addressing that stress psychologically. Both studies will be randomized clinical trials of about 100 patients each.

Jennifer will be conducting her dissertation research with women with chronic pelvic pain at the Women's Urology Center at Beaumont Hospital, and Maisa will be conducting her dissertation with patients with medically unexplained symptoms at the WSU Family Medicine Center at Crittenton Hospital. Both students are mentored by Mark Lumley, Professor and Director of Clinical Psychology Doctoral Training of the Psychology Department, in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

Jennifer and Maisa hope that their projects will shed more light on the role of psychological stress in pain and other symptoms, will lead to better health for the large number of patients suffering with these conditions, and will prompt changes in the way that patients are assessed in health care settings.