Research / Clinical Summary

Joel Dimsdale, MD Professor, Psychiatry Cancer Symptom Control Program Contact by Email

My work has continued on behavioral physiology, ethnicity and illness. While the bulk of this has centered on blood pressure and hemodynamic regulation, it translates naturally to oncology because it tracks the extent of physiological responses to emotional stressors and also tracks the pervasive and powerful impact of ethnicity on health behaviors.

Other work centers on characterizing sleep physiology. Here again, the link with oncology is clear, as sleep is so frequently disrupted in cancer patients. The work has examined some of the physiological underpinnings of obstructive sleep apnea and examined the extent to which common treatments for apnea may entail a certain element of placebo response. The careful scrutiny of treatments for non-specific treatment effects (aka “placebo”) has important ramifications for oncology research.

A collaboration exists with Drs. Paul Mills, Thomas Patterson, and Igor Grant on a large study examining ways of ameliorating the emotional and physical burden that Alzheimer caregivers experience. The group recently discovered that caregivers are at increased risk for developing hypertension. These studies have a clear relevance to the Cancer Center mission.

Dimsdale is collaborating with cancer center members Ted Ball and Mark Wallace on a study of sleep and pain in bone marrow transplant patients.