Katrina R. HamiltonJohns Hopkins University | JHU · Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Katrina R. Hamilton
Phd
About
17
Publications
1,465
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109
Citations
Citations since 2017
Introduction
Broadly, my work has focused on acute and chronic stress, noninvasive interventions, lifestyle medicine, salivary assay methodology, and working with chronically ill and healthy individuals. My research interests include: Chronic Conditions; Non-invasive Interventions (e.g., lifestyle modification, MBSR); Pain; Acute and Chronic Stress; Cellular Aging; Health Disparities (e.g., SES); Psychoneuroimmunology; Translational work focused on extending Health Psychology work into clinical application.
Additional affiliations
June 2019 - June 2021
Position
- PostDoc Position
Description
- Much of my work while at UCI focused on data from the Family Life Project, a longitudinal study that has followed infants into early adolescence to study environmental exposures, child development, and health in the context of rural poverty. Through this training I gained expertise in biospecimen collection, assay work for salivary biomarkers, and explored specialized statistical approaches for censored data and skewed biological data. Primary Mentor: Dr. Douglas Granger
August 2016 - December 2016
August 2014 - June 2019
Position
- PhD Student
Description
- Primary mentors: Dr. Peggy Zoccola and Dr. David Drozek.
Education
August 2014 - May 2019
August 2014 - December 2017
September 2009 - May 2014
Publications
Publications (17)
Objective:
Understanding the relationship between stress and telomere length (a marker of cellular aging) is of great interest for reducing aging-related disease and death. One important aspect of acute stress exposure that may underlie detrimental effects on health is physiological reactivity to the stressor.
Methods:
This study tested the rela...
Background:
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis dysregulation is associated with disease and may be indexed by poor cortisol habituation (i.e., a failure to show decreased responding with repeated stressor exposure). Thus, stress management training that can enhance HPA axis habituation may benefit health. To date, the effects of Mind...
Despite the integration of salivary inflammatory cytokines into research across the biobehavioral, psychological, clinical, and health-related disciplines, there is little guidance regarding the biospecimen collection, handling, and storage practices that maximize the quality and validity of salivary cytokine data. Furthermore, associations between...
Racism-based discrimination in healthcare settings has been associated with clinical pain in adults living with sickle cell disease (SCD); however, no studies have examined depressive and insomnia symptoms as mechanisms that may drive this relationship. This secondary data analysis examined associations between depressive and insomnia symptoms, rac...
Salivary bioscience is noteworthy in its history, as well as in the breadth and scope of its impact. The minimally invasive nature of sampling oral fluid allows for evaluation of individual and intra-individual change in biological processes in ways and settings not possible with traditional biospecimens. The range of measurements is expansive (e.g...
Sleep disturbance predicts worse pain outcomes. Because sleep disturbance inequitably impacts Black adults – with racism as the upstream cause – understanding how racism-related stress impacts pain through sleep might help minimize racialized pain inequities. This preliminary study examined sequential mediation of the effect of racism-related stres...
Left censoring in salivary bioscience data occurs when salivary analyte determinations fall below the lower limit of an assay’s measurement range. Conventional statistical approaches for addressing censored values (i.e., recoding as missing, substituting or extrapolating values) may introduce systematic bias. While specialized censored data statist...
Masculine and feminine gender roles influence stressor appraisals and coping in everyday life, but their effect on stress response systems like the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical axis is unclear. Accordingly, the present study tested the association between gender roles and cortisol responses to repeated stress as part of secondary analyses...
Meta-analyses suggest a small association between cardiovascular responses to acute stressors and cardiovascular disease, but a recent review suggests that this effect may be underestimated due to insufficient consideration of individual differences in habituation to repeated stressors.
Objective:
The present article reports new analyses of a pub...
Best practice standards for measuring analyte levels in saliva recommend that all biospecimens be tested in replicate with mean concentrations used in statistical analyses. This approach prioritizes minimizing laboratory-based measurement error but, in the process, expends considerable resources. We explore the possibility that, due to advances in...
Objective:
Minority stress may contribute to poor health by dysregulating stress response systems, including diurnal cortisol rhythms. However, few studies have examined the association between sexual and gender minority stress and diurnal cortisol in lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The current investigation tested whet...
In recent decades, the integration of salivary bioscience and psychological science has had a profound impact on our understanding of the interactions between the psychological, social, and physiological factors of health (e.g., Hoyt & Zimmerman, 2020). In addition to its relevance to a wide range of research topics within psychological science—fro...
Background:
Consistent with the dual-hormone hypothesis, the combination of high testosterone levels and low cortisol levels has been linked to increased dominant and aggressive behaviors. However, recent research indicates that this association is weaker or even reversed following provocation. It is also unclear whether the association between te...
Objective:
Revealing one's sexual identity to others is a complex process marked by a shift in the types of stressors faced by sexual minority young adults. Such stressors influence the secretion of health-relevant hormones, including cortisol, yet how dimensions of disclosure (i.e., the degree and context) influence neuroendocrine functioning rem...
The relationship between mindfulness (i.e., monitoring present experiences with acceptance) and diurnal cortisol has been the subject of growing interest. However, no studies have examined how distinct mindfulness subcomponents of awareness and acceptance may independently or interactively predict diurnal cortisol rhythms. As such, the present proj...
Stress may contribute to illness through the impaired recovery or sustained activity of stress-responsive biological systems. Rumination, or mental rehearsal of past stressors, may alter the body's stress-responsive systems by amplifying and prolonging exposure to physiological mediators, such as cortisol. The primary aim of the current investigati...
Projects
Projects (2)
The overarching goals of this research are to evaluate the effects of a comprehensive lifestyle intervention on multiple biopsychosocial outcomes (i.e., functional pain outcomes (intensity/disability), psychological outcomes (depressed mood, perceived stress), and physiological outcomes (inflammation and telomeric activity) relative to treatment as usual for individuals with chronic pain. This investigation used a three-month long intervention that encouraged a diet of whole plant-based foods, exercise, stress reduction, and social support. In addition to the baseline and three-month follow-up data currently being analyzed, one-year follow-up data collection is currently underway and will be completed in May 2019.
