Grantee: Paul Duberstein
Paul Duberstein, PhD
- University of Rochester Medical Center
Paul Duberstein, Ph.D., is interested in leveraging advances in the psychological, behavioral, and social sciences to improve the delivery of health care to patients with advanced, life-limiting disease and their caregivers. He conducts observational and intervention research, and he focuses on assuring these approaches are complementary and mutually informing. The observational studies examine the implications of depression, personality, and social processes for outcomes, such as patient longevity. The intervention studies aim to improve patient and caregiver outcomes by empowering and enabling patients and caregivers to communicate more effectively with their clinicians.
Dr. Duberstein and his co-investigator Martin Pinquart, Ph.D., (based at Philipps University in Marburg, Germany) conducted research that showed depression in cancer patients is associated with shorter survival. The analyses highlight the importance of depression in cancer care and underscore the need for cancer communication initiatives to address depression. His current NCI-funded study is designed to answer this question: Can a brief communication intervention for patients with advanced cancer, their family caregivers, and their cancer doctors lead to improvements in caregiver depression and overall adjustment?
After receiving NCI funding for a caregiver study, I was unexpectedly thrust briefly into a caregiver role. My personal experiences taught me that I knew less than I thought about caregiving. It motivated me to work harder to incorporate first-hand experiences into my research by using qualitative methods and by adding patients and caregivers to my research teams.”
Selected Grants
| Project Title | Grant Number | Program Director |
|---|---|---|
| Impact of Novel Cancer Communication Intervention on Caregiver Bereavement | 4R01CA168387-04 | Wen-Ying Sylvia Chou |