Jody Greaney, PhD, to present seminar on 12/2/22 at 11:00 am, LIB-110: “Daily stress, depression and sympathetic-cardiovascular (dys)function”

Department of Physiology & Anatomy

Jody Greaney, PhD
Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology
University of Texas at Arlington

“Daily stress, depression, and sympathetic-cardiovascular (dys)function”

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a staggering public health challenge, manifesting in ~15% of adults in the US and contributing substantially to the global burden of disease and disability. Considering the increasing prevalence of MDD, particularly in young adulthood, it is critical to understand the pathophysiological underpinnings of MDD across a broad spectrum of function in order to identify individually-tailored preventive and therapeutic interventions. Given the intimate reciprocal link between stress and MDD, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying stress system dysfunction in MDD may provide clinically relevant insight into such treatment strategies. One hypothesis is that MDD serves as a vulnerability factor that sensitizes and amplifies the link between daily stress and sympathetic-cardiovascular dysfunction. Ongoing projects in our laboratory are determining the relation between exposure and emotional responsiveness to daily stress and acute sympathetic-cardiovascular reactivity. We utilize an intensive ambulatory daily diary-based approach to comprehensively characterize multiple dimensions of daily stress in everyday life in immediate temporal proximity to a laboratory-based mechanistic assessment of sympathetic-cardiovascular reactivity to acute physical, emotional, and cognitive stress stimuli. Our preliminary data suggest that greater negative affective responsivity (i.e., a stronger negative emotional response to daily stress) is associated with greater acute cardiovascular stress reactivity and that this relation is sensitized in adults with MDD.

Friday, December 2, 2022, 11:00AM-12:00PM, LIB-110
University of North Texas Health Science Center
Fort Worth, Texas