Depression is one of the leading forms of disability worldwide. Adolescence and early adulthood mark particularly critical periods for developing depression. Specifically, a large proportion of individuals with a lifetime history of depression experience his or her first depressive episode during adolescence or early adulthood. Consequently, identifying the factors that contribute to early-onset depression has become a major public health concern. There is growing evidence that stress and sleep play a key role in the development of depression. Yet, our understanding of the mechanisms by which these factors impact youth depression remains relatively unclear. This gap is important as it has limited the clinical utility of stress- and sleep-related research. Therefore, my research focuses on examining a number of potential mechanisms (e.g., neuroendocrine functioning, cognition) by which sleep and stress increase risk for depression. Specifically, my research program includes two primary aims:
1) to elucidate how variability in the functioning of the key neuroendocrine stress response system, the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA-axis) interacts with sleep to impact depression, and
2) to determine how cognitive processing (i.e., memory, attention, and attributional biases), particularly of emotional information (e.g., stress, negative and positive stimuli), interacts with sleep to impact depression.
My goal is to advance our basic understanding of the mechanisms that impact the onset of depression, and contribute to the identification of clinically useful markers that may inform the development of more effective prevention and treatment efforts.
Finally, I have also recently developed an interest in identifying factors that potentially explain the comorbid link between insomnia and depression, given their shared phenomenology. To this end, the final aim of my research program is 3) to investigate the factors linked to both insomnia and depression, as it may allow us to identify potential shared mechanisms that increase risk and vulnerability to both insomnia and depression.
Please click on the tabs above for more information about my past and current research.
