Depression Treatment and Research Program

The Depression Treatment and Research Program (DTRP) is part of the Department of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. The DTRP lab is dedicated to improving the lives of people suffering from depression through innovative research and clinical services. Our research focuses on cognitive, affective, and motivational processes in depression and how different types of therapy can help people recover.

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Depression: NOT the common cold!


By Kari Eddington, PhD, Lab Director

I often hear (and read) about depression referred to as the "common cold" of mental health. I find this to be an egregious mischaracterization of a complex condition that continues to destroy the lives of people across the age range, regardless of race, gender, cultural background, or socioeconomic status -- despite decades of research on its causes and treatments.

There is so much we don't yet understand about depression, but the only thing it shares with the "common cold" is perhaps its prevalence. While clinical depression is relatively uncommon, milder and more transient experiences of depression are certainly quite common. Unlike a common cold, however, depression is more than just an inconvenience that will go away on its own. Its course can be chronic and unremitting. As a clinician, I am dedicated to helping people, one by one, learn strategies to help them cope with depression. As a researcher, I am dedicated to advancing our understanding of what depression is, how it impacts peoples' lives, and how we can improve available treatments.

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LAB NEWS

  • Data collection for Phase 2 of the MACS study is in progress! Thanks to all the lab research assistants, senior RAs, and grad students for your hard work so far on this longitudinal study of depressive anhedonia. We had to make some adaptations due to COVID-19, but we didn't let it stand in our way!

  • Excited to see the Strong Minds study featured in the Fall 2020 issue of UNCG Research Magazine! https://researchmagazine.uncg.edu/fall-2020/were-here/

  • Congratulations to lab alumna Dr. Kelly Harper for having the second paper from her dissertation accepted for publication in the Journal of Research in Personality! Her first paper appeared in Journal of Clinical and Social Psychology.

  • Congratulations to lab alumnae Kelly Harper and Anahita Kalianivala who have both accepted postdoc positions. Kelly is in a research postdoc at the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston. Anahita is in a clinical postdoc at the Stanford Pain Management Center. Way to go Kelly and Anahita!

  • Announcing the SciMP (Science Meets Practice) Journal Club! If you are interested in learning and talking about what science can tell us about psychotherapy process and outcome, mechanisms of action in treatments, dissemination/implementation and other clinical topics, join us! Meetings take place about once a month.

  • Congratulations to all who contributed to our recent publication in the Journal of Individual Differences ("Perfectionism and the impact of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation in daily life: A brief report"): Kelly Harper, Kari Eddington, Jaimie Lunsford, and Ariana Hoet. A great team effort!

  • The Strong Minds study, funded by a R01 grant from NIMH, is now under way! This is an exciting collaborative project with the Caminos lab (Dr. Gaby Stein) and our partner site, the Disparities Research Unit at Mass General (Dr. Margarita Alegria). See our web page: https://www.caminoslab.org/strongminds