Cousins Professor receives 2012 WPA Early Career Research Award

Marina Samaltanos — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 23:42:54 +0000

Article link:

http://www.semel.ucla.edu/sites/all/files/WPA%202012%20Early%20Career%20Award.pd...

In recognition of his prolific and substantive research contributions, the Western Psychological Association is pleased to recognize Dr. George Slavich with the 2012 WPA Early Career Research Award. For full release, click here.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Cousins Professor named fellow by American Association for the Advancement of Science

System Admin — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 23:49:57 +0000

Article link:

http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/5-ucla-professors-named-fellows-220287.aspx

Dr. Steve Cole, Cousins Center for PNI Professor, is one of seven UCLA scholars have been selected as fellows by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest general scientific society and the publisher of the journal Science. Members are chosen for their distinguished efforts to advance science or its applications.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Cousins Center Recently Awarded Seed Grants

System Admin — Mon, 26 Sep 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://www.semel.ucla.edu/cousins/current-ucla-faculty-awarded-seed-grants

The Cousins Center has recently awarded six seed grants across the departments of Psychology, Geriatric Psychiatry, Neurology, Geriatric Medicine and Hematology / Oncology. Click here for a full listing of PI's and grant titles.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

In Nature Review Immunology, Drs. Michael Irwin and Steve Cole's "Reciprocal regulation of the neural and innate immune systems".

System Admin — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://www.nature.com/nri/journal/v11/n9/full/nri3042.html

Click here to view the review by Steve Cole, Professor of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine in Nature Review Immunology.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Overwhelmed caregivers: Try meditation

System Admin — Thu, 19 May 2011 23:51:16 +0000

Article link:

http://www.latimes.com/health/boostershots/la-heb-meditation-caregivers-20110519...

Dr. Helen Lavretsky, professor of psychiatry, and Dr. Michael Irwin, professor of psychiatry and director of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Semel Institute, were featured in a May 20 Los Angeles Times blog about their research suggesting that meditative yoga can help improve the mental and physical health of home-based caregivers.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

2011 Neal Miller Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research

Marina Samaltanos — Mon, 02 May 2011 19:44:16 +0000

Cousins Center faculty member George Slavich has been named recipient of the 2011 Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research. The award is presented for work “imaginatively conceived and carefully conducted prior to the recipient's appointment as an assistant professor or an equivalent rank.” Dr. Slavich received the award for his research on “the interaction between behavior and biological mechanisms in homeostasis, the maintenance of health, the pathophysiology of disease, or the susceptibility to illness.” The award consists of a plaque and a cash award. In addition, Dr. Slavich will give an invited address at the upcoming annual meeting for the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, to be held in Park City, Utah, from June 15th-18th, 2011.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology

Tai chi beats back depression in the elderly, study shows

Semel Web Manager — Wed, 16 Mar 2011 14:25:12 +0000

The numbers are, well, depressing: More than 2 million people age 65 and older suffer from depression, including 50 percent of those living in nursing homes. The suicide rate among white men over 85 is the highest in the country — six times the national rate. And we're not getting any younger. In the next 35 years, the number of Americans over 65 will double and the number of those over 85 will triple. So the question becomes, how to help elderly depressed individuals?

Researchers at UCLA turned to a gentle, Westernized version of tai chi chih, a 2,000-year-old Chinese martial art. When they combined a weekly tai chi exercise class with a standard depression treatment for a group of depressed elderly adults, they found greater improvement in the level of depression — along with improved quality of life, better memory and cognition, and more overall energy — than among a different group in which the standard treatment was paired with a weekly health education class.

Author:

Mark Wheeler

Division of Geriatric Psychiatry

The Reason Loneliness Could be Bad for Your Health

System Admin — Thu, 24 Feb 2011 08:00:00 +0000

Article link:

http://www.economist.com/node/18226813?story_id=18226813&fsrc=rss

Steven Cole, associate professor of hematology–oncology and member of the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Semel Institute, was featured in a Feb. 24 Economist article about his study finding that chronically lonely people may be at higher risk for certain types of disease because their feelings of social isolation trigger the activity of pro-inflammatory immune cells.

Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology