​The Biological Embedding of Traumatic Stress:
​Implications for Mental Health & Intervention

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PI: Dr. Melissa Hagan. Consultants: Dr. Charmayne Hughes and Dr. Sarah Holley as Consultants. This was an empirical study that explored the association between quality of interpersonal experiences in childhood family environments and different types of aggression in ethnically diverse women between the ages of 18 and 35. Physiological data was collected, along with an extensive questionnaire. The goal of the study was to explore the associations between early adversity and young adult aggression and a possible mediation or moderation with patterns of biological stress response.

Relevant Publications:

• ​​Hagan, M.J. , Waters, S.F., Holley, S., Moctezuma, L., & *Gentry, M. (2020). The interactive effect of family conflict history and physiological reactivity on different forms of aggression in young women. Biological Psychology, 153.

Dr. Hagan was the Co-Investigator of a pilot study based at the UCSF Child Trauma Research Program, under the leadership of Dr. Nicole Bush and Dr. Alicia Lieberman, designed to test whether an empirically validated parent-child psychotherapeutic treatment improves biological functioning (e.g., neuroendocrine system functioning, inflammatory processes, cellular aging) in young, traumatized children and their biological mothers. Dr. Hagan's work focuses on the associations between parent-child relationship functioning, chronic levels of cortisol activity, and markers of inflammation.

Relevant Publications: 

• Hagan, M.J., Coccia, M., Rivera, L., Epel, E., Aschbacher, K., Lieberman, A.F., & Bush, N.R. (2021). Longitudinal hair cortisol in low-income young children: A useful biomarker of symptom change? Psychoneuroendocrinology.
• Aschbacher, K., Cole, S., Hagan, M.J., et al. (2021). An immunogenomic phenotype predicting behavioral treatment response: Toward precision psychiatry for mothers and children with trauma exposure. Brain Behavior and Immunity.
• Aschbacher, K., Hagan, M.J., Stein, I.M., Rivera, L., Cole et al. (2021). Adversity in early life and pregnancy are immunologically distinct from total life adversity: Macrophage-associated phenotypes in women exposed to interpersonal violence. Translational Psychiatry.

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Psychophysiology and Interpersonal Experiences in Young Adult Women