Dwain C Fehon PsyD
Assistant Professor of Psychiatry; Chief Psychologist, Psychiatric Services, Yale New Haven Hospital
Research Interests
Behavioral medicine; Psychotherapy development; Coping with chronic illness; Resilience; Quality of life; Stress; Depression; Developmental psychopathology
Current Projects
"Assessment of post liver transplant quality of life and psychosocial functioning."
This is a mixed methods, prospective, longitudinal study designed to investigate the relationship between pre-transplant psychosocial functioning and post-transplant quality of life and medical outcomes among liver transplant recipients.
"Liver SMART: A group stress management and relaxation intervention for liver transplant candidates."
This is a Stage IA pilot study to explore the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of a novel eight-week cognitive behavioral stress management and relaxation program designed to decrease stress-related symptoms of depression and anxiety among liver transplant candidates.
"Social, emotional, and medical functioning of people with epilepsy."
This exploratory study seeks to compare the psychological, social, and medical functioning of patients with epilepsy and non-eplileptic seizure disorder (NES).
"Liver Transplant Psychosocial Risk Scale."
This study aims to develop a brief, clinician-administered screening tool to quantify psychcosocial risk among liver transplant candidates.
Research Summary
My clinical, teaching, and research interests fall into several basic areas: a) the development and provision of behavioral medicine services, b) psychotherapy to adolescents, adults and families, c) psychological and neuropsychological assessment, and d) the coordination of predoctoral internship training in clinical psychology within YNHH and YNHPH.
The majority of my research interests have focused on the developmental period of adolescence and the impact that traumatic events, such as childhood abuse and the exposure to community violence played in the development and symptomatic expression of psychopathology—specifically as related to adolescent depression, aggression, substance abuse, PTSD, and personality dysfunction.
More recently, however, my clinical and research interests have shifted to behavioral medicine and the relationship between physical illness, emotional functioning, and quality of life. Clinically, my colleagues and I have developed a psychological behavioral medicine service that is integrated within the Yale New Haven Hospital Transplantation Center, Cancer Center, and Epilepsy Program. Within these settings, we have initiated several pilot studies to examine the psychological, behavioral, and neuropsychiatric comorbidities among patients facing serious, chronic, and sometimes life threatening illnessness. We are also interested in exploring the feasibility and effectiveness of novel therapies to reduce the risk of adverse stress-related symptoms such as drug and alcohol abuse, depression, anxiety and PTSD in these vulnerable patient populations.
Selected Publications
- Hopwood C, Ansell E, Fehon D, Grilo C. The mediational significance of negative/depressive affect in the relationship of childhood maltreatment and eating disorder features in adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Eating and Weight Disorders, 16: 2011
- Hopwood C, Ansell E, Fehon D, Grilo C. Personality Heterogeneity in Female Adolescent Inpatients with Features of Eating Disorders. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 51(6):585-591, 2010.
- Zaitsoff SL, Fehon DC, Grilo CM. Social Competence and Social-Emotional Isolation and Eating Disorder Psychopathology in Female and Male Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients. International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology, 2009, 9:2, 219-228.
- Fehon DC. The cycle of youth violence. Psychiatric Times, 2007, 24:7, 44-47.
- Sullivan TP, Fehon DC, Andres-Hyman R, Lipschitz DS, Grilo CM. Differential relationships of childhood abuse and neglect subtypes to PTSD symptom clusters among adolescent inpatients. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2006, 19:2,229-23.
- Fehon DC, Grilo CM, Lipschitz DS. A comparison of adolescent inpatients with and without a history of violence perpetration: Impulsivity, PTSD, and violence risk. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2005, 193:6, 405-411.
- Fehon DC, Grilo CM, Lipschitz D. Gender differences in violence exposure and violence risk among psychiatrically hospitalized adolescents. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 2001, 189:4, 532-540.
- Fehon DC, Grilo CM, Lipschitz D. Correlates of community violence exposure in hospitalized adolescents. Comprehensive Psychiatry, 2001, 42:4, 283-290.
