Stacy S. Drury
Stacy S Drury, M.D, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Neurology, Section of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Tulane University School Medicine
BIO: Dr. Drury’s clinical interest focuses on children with cancer and other life threatening illnesses and the psychiatric and adjustment issues associated with medical illness and medical traumatic stress. In addition she is the medical director for a camp for children, and their siblings with cancer and other blood disorders. Current collaborative clinical research projects include validation of a rating instrument for the psychosocial assessment of pediatric solid organ transplant patients and exploring the utility of a screening instrument for psychosocial stressors in recently diagnosed pediatric cancer patients. Her basic research interest lies in understanding the impact of a early life stress as a result of a variety of sources including single incident trauma, hurricane Katrina, social deprivation due to institutional care, and cancer treatment on brain development. She is exploring gene x environment interactions, epigenetic modifications, and immune changes in this process. The overall goal of her research is to understand how early life stress results in neurobiological changes that interact to create a lasting vulnerability to psychological illness.
PRESENTATION TITLE AND DESCRIPTION:
Using Neurobiology to Prevent Psychological Trauma and Shape Early Intervention
This presentation will focus on redefining what is known about the impact of early trauma from injury and medical illness, in terms of modalities to prevent and/or alter this trajectory through the use of early treatment and preventative strategies. We will focus on evidenced based methods, such as CBT, and other less well studied approaches to minimize initial distress, improve children’s coping strategies, and work within the parent-child dyad to improve long term and short term outcomes. This presentation will end with a discussion of the importance of these early intervention strategies to alter early neurobiological trajectories and thus improve long term outcomes.
At the completion of this presentation, the participant will gain:
- Increased understanding of the impact of early medical trauma.
- Increased understanding of different treatment and intervention modalities to decrease distress and improve coping in very young children.
- Developed a beginning understanding of the relation between early medical stress and the potential lasting neurobiological changes.