Research Focus

My research has focused on important contributors to health and recovery from illness and trauma within the broad context of medical psychology: depression, stress, and physical activity/exercise. I pursue studies that help to explain to the mechanisms that link physical and mental health. Fatigue is a special area of interest, since fatigue is reported to be one of the most distressing symptoms experienced by the general population, as well as individuals with chronic illness and disability.

Current Projects

■ A Pilot Investigation Comparing fMRI and Neurocognitive Performance in Individuals with Type II Diabetes to Individuals with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease: A pilot investigation designed to provide proof of concept in determining if there are fMRI differences between individuals with and without NAFLD

■ Identifying and Understanding How to Make Rehabilitation Research and Information Relevant to TBI, SCI, and Burn Injury Patients, Caregivers, and Clinicians: A knowledge translation qualitative interview study that is part of the Model Systems Knowledge Translation Center (msktc.org)

■ Effect of an Acute Bout of Exercise on the Affect of Sedentary Individuals and Individuals with Depressive Symptomatology: An investigation looking at the potential different effects of one exercise session on mood in those with and without elevated depressive symptomatology

■ Resident Education in Clinical Research: In collaboration with Inova Fairfax Hospital, the purpose of this work is to expose medical residents to the basics of clinical research and teach them the necessary skills to complete scholarly activities. This will be accomplished by providing didactic presentations to the residents and consulting with Inova Faculty Research mentors in order to facilitate the research projects of residents (i.e., methodological and statistical assistance)

Select Publications

■ Gerber, L. H. et. al. (2019). Importance of fatigue and its measurement in chronic liver disease. World J. Gastroenterol., 25(28), 3669-3683.

■ Avila, L. et. al. (2019). Cytokine balance is restored as patient‐ reported outcomes improve in patients recovering from chronic hepatitis C. Liver Int., 39(9), 1631-1640.

■ Weinstein, A. A. et. al. (2019). Relationships among neurotransmitters, cytokines and cognitive performance for individuals with hepatitis C achieving sustained virologic response: A pilot study. J. Neuroimmunol., 335, 577022.

■ Etindele Sosso, F. et. al. (2021). Influence of socioeconomic status on objective sleep measurement: A systematic review and meta-analysis of actigraphy studies. Sleep Health.