DF/HCC Program Affiliation

Outcomes Research
Palliative Care

Research Abstract

Led by Holly Prigerson, PhD, an internationally known researcher on bereavement and end-of-life care, the Center for Psycho-oncology and Palliative Care provides a valuable resource for fellows who seek to pursue academic palliative care careers. Intensive mentoring, access to large psychooncology and palliative care databases, opportunities to collaborate on ongoing projects, and support in grant preparation are offered through the Center. Currently, three fellows and former fellows, as well as multiple other young researchers, are actively involved in research projects within the Center. Current areas of research include:
• improved methods for the detection and treatment of depression and anxiety in cancer
patients and their family caregivers;
• the use of religious coping in addressing unmet spiritual needs of seriously ill patients;
• the interactions between pain and other physical symptom management and mental status;
• the effectiveness of web-based interactive self-help tutorials to assist bereaved caregivers in the difficult early post-loss adjustment period;
• clinical trials of medications for complicated grief;
• ethnic and gender-based disparities in advanced cancer care;
• doctor-patient-family communications and their influence on the patient and family caregiver’s quality of life;
• physician factors influencing clinical practice in end-of-life care;
• evaluating interventions to improve palliative care practice in physicians and nurses

Publications

• Maciejewski PK, Zhang B, Block SD, Prigerson HG.An empirical examination of the stage theory of grief.JAMA 2007 Feb 21;297(7):716-23.
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• Kadan-Lottick NS, Vanderwerker LC, Block SD, Zhang B, Prigerson HG.Psychiatric disorders and mental health service use in patients with advanced cancer.Cancer 2005 Nov 14;104(12):2872-2881.
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• Vanderwerker LC, Laff RE, Kadan-Lottick NS, McColl S, Prigerson HG.Psychiatric disorders and mental health service use among caregivers of advanced cancer patients.J Clin Oncol 2005 Oct 1;23(28):6899-907.
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• Ganzini L, Prigerson H.The other side of the slippery slope.Hastings Cent Rep 2004 Jul-Aug;34(4):3.
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• Lichtenthal WG, Cruess DG, Prigerson HG.A case for establishing complicated grief as a distinct mental disorder in DSM-V.Clin Psychol Rev 2004 Oct;24(6):637-62.
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• Prigerson HG.Costs to society of family caregiving for patients with end-stage Alzheimer's disease.N Engl J Med 2003 Nov 13;349(20):1891-2.
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• Prigerson HG, Jacobs SC.Perspectives on care at the close of life. Caring for bereaved patients: "all the doctors just suddenly go".JAMA 2001 Sep 19;286(11):1369-76.
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• Prigerson HG, Shear MK, Jacobs SC, Reynolds CF, Maciejewski PK, Davidson JR, Rosenheck R, Pilkonis PA, Wortman CB, Williams JB, Widiger TA, Frank E, Kupfer DJ, Zisook S.Consensus criteria for traumatic grief. A preliminary empirical test.Br J Psychiatry 1
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• Prigerson HG, Bierhals AJ, Kasl SV, Reynolds CF, Shear MK, Day N, Beery LC, Newsom JT, Jacobs S.Traumatic grief as a risk factor for mental and physical morbidity.Am J Psychiatry 1997 May;154(5):616-23.
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• Prigerson HG, Maciejewski PK, Reynolds CF, Bierhals AJ, Newsom JT, Fasiczka A, Frank E, Doman J, Miller M.Inventory of Complicated Grief: a scale to measure maladaptive symptoms of loss.Psychiatry Res 1995 Nov 29;59(1-2):65-79.
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• Prigerson HG, Frank E, Kasl SV, Reynolds CF, Anderson B, Zubenko GS, Houck PR, George CJ, Kupfer DJ.Complicated grief and bereavement-related depression as distinct disorders: preliminary empirical validation in elderly bereaved spouses.Am J Psychiatry 19
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• Prigerson HG.Socialization to dying: social determinants of death acknowledgement and treatment among terminally ill geriatric patients.J Health Soc Behav 1992 Dec;33(4):378-95.
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