Clinical Research
Our diverse research programs have experienced unprecedented growth in recent years
Departmental research interests run a wide gamut including uncovering the causes of and cures for psychiatric illnesses, clinical treatments, and health services research. The department aims to advance research on the biomedical basis of mental illness, to develop novel therapeutic approaches for patients, and to provide innovative adjustment strategies for patients, families, and others dealing with mental illness.
Addiction, Mental Health, Prevention, and Treatment
Utilizing digital technologies to reach young adults and veterans to help mitigate substance use behaviors, sexual violence, and other mental health outcomes.
Adolescent Traumatic Stress
Evaluating and treating complex trauma effects, including substance use and self-injury, in multi-traumatized, socially marginalized adolescents.
Addiction, Mental Health, Prevention, and Treatment
Utilizing digital technologies to reach young adults and veterans to help mitigate substance use behaviors, sexual violence, and other mental health outcomes.
Clinical and Translational Science
Addressing gaps in access to depression care due to life circumstances and community factors in Latinx populations.
Culturally-Matched, Embedded Counseling
Developing a culturally-matched, embedded counseling service to increase mental health access, engagement, and wellbeing among Black identified college students.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease
Investigating clinical trials in dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, late-life depression, geriatric neuropsychopharmacology, and clinical research treatments.
Eating and Weight Disorders
Examining the role of emotion regulation and cognitive functioning contributing to eating psychopathology and obesity. Utilizing multi-method assessment approaches, including real-time data collection to elucidate biobehavioral mechanisms that contribute to disordered eating behaviors.
Forensic Psychiatry
Interrelating the fields of behavioral science, law, and public policy to initiate legislative change in the area of mental health law.
HIV/AIDS Psychiatry
Studying the psychiatric aspects of individuals with HIV or AIDS.
Mindfulness Therapy
Studying the effects of long-term mindfulness therapies on perception, attention, and brain activity.
Neuromodulation Treatments
Applying neuromodulation treatments (electroconvulsive therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation, ketamine infusion, vagal nerve stimulation, and deep brain stimulation) in a variety of psychiatric disorders.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Focusing on treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), including cognitive behavioral therapy, family accommodation therapy, and the application of transcranial magnetic stimulation and deep brain stimulation for OCD.
Reproductive Mental Health
Dr. Dossett’s research interests converge at the intersections of reproductive mental health, access to health care, and the ethics of reproductive decision-making for perinatal people with serious mental illness. Through grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the California Health Care Foundation, her published works examine novel ways to improve community-based mental health care for pregnant and parenting people.
Dr. Dossett’s current initiatives spotlight potential areas of integration between reproductive decision-making and mental health care service delivery. Examples include investigating the role of reproductive goals counseling in outpatient mental health clinics; the development of psychiatric advance directives for perinatal people; and the creation of standardized emergency room guidelines for treating perinatal people in psychiatric crises. Dr. Dossett also regularly mentors medical students, residents, and fellows from both psychiatry and obstetrics and gynecology in research and quality improvement projects.
Stimulant Use Treatment in Communities of Color
Treating stimulant use in communities of color, counteracting health inequity by bridging the gap of health care disparities for historically underserved and economically disadvantaged groups.
Violence Prevention for LGBTQ+ Students
Developing culturally sensitive, trauma-informed coordinated campus services and enhanced prevention efforts to eradicate and mitigate gender-based violence in the LGBTQ+ campus community.