Dolores Gallagher Thompson

Clinical Focus

• Psychiatry
• Psychology

Administrative Appointments

• CONA: Committee on Aging. Shapes APA policy as it relates to geriatric mental health, American Psychological Association (2008 - 2010)
• Director, Principal Investigator, Stanford Geriatric Education Center (2008 - 2011)
• Director, Education & Information Transfer Core, Alzheimer's Clinical Research Center of Stanford Univ/VA Palo Alto (2002 - 2007)
• Director, Older Adult & Family Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care Center/Stanford Univ. (2000 - 2007)
• Core Faculty in Psychology, Stanford Geriatric Education Center (1987 - 2006)

Honors and Awards

• Honorable mention, Healthcare and Aging award, The American Society on Aging, San Francisco (2007)
• Senior Scholar Special Commendation of Honor, The American Association of University Women (AAUW) (2007)
• M. Powell Lawton award for distinguished life-time contributions to the field of Psychology, The Annual Meeting of the American Psychological Association, San Francisco (August 2007)
• Volunteer Appreciation, Alzheimer's Association, Greater San Francisco Bay Area chapter (2000, 2002, 2004)
• Volunteer Appreciation, Self-Help for the Elderly, a service program for Chinese families (2003)

Professional Education

• Board Certification: Psychology, American Board of Prof Psychology (1997)
• Medical Education: University of Southern California Los Angeles -, CA (1979)
• Ph.D., Univ of Southern California, Clinical Psychology & Aging (1979)
• Certificate of completion, UCLA Neuropsychiatric Institute, pre-doctoral internship (1978)

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Psychiatry and Behavioral Science

Community & International Work

• Caring for the Caregiver in Japan & China, Tokyo, Beijing 
• Skill Training for Family Caregivers 

Web Site Links

• Older Adult and Family Center

Research Interests

For the past 20 years I have been conducting intervention research to reduce distress in older adults & their family members. Initially (with colleagues) we investigated the efficacy of psychotherapies (cognitive/ behavioral {CBT} & psychodynamic) to treat late-life depression. In the final study in that series we found that CBT was significantly better than anti-depressant medication for short term treatment of major depression. More recently I have focused on the development and evaluation of a psychosocial program "coping with caregiving" that teaches a wide range of coping skills to distressed family caregivers of dementia victims. These programs have shown that the CWC is significantly better than telephone based control conditions in reducing distress & improving quality of life. Currently, materials are available in the Spanish & Chinese languages. We are also part of a multi-site study of effective caregiver interventions(funded by NIA)that enrolled 600 caregivers (African American, Caucasian, & Hispanic/Latino)that just ended. Results will be available in early 2005. Plans are underway to extend these studies to male caregivers of various ethnic groups. Finally, we are collaborating with Dr. David Spiegel to investigate the role of cortisol & other physiological indices of stress to caregivers' overall distress. That work is in progress and results should be available late 2005.

Publications

• Entries on CBT and Aging, and CBT and Caregiving, for A. Freeman (Ed.) Gallagher-Thompson, D., Coon, D.W. "International encyclopedia of cognitive behavior therapy"
• Geriatric psychiatry: Cognitive behavioral therapy with older adults. In B. J. Sadock & V. A. Sadock (Eds.) Thompson, L.W., McGee, J.S., & Gallagher-Thompson, D. "Comprehensive textbook of psychiatry"
• The relationship between objectively measured sleep disturbance and dementia family caregiver distress and burden. Beaudreau SA, Spira AP, Gray HL, Depp CA, Long J, Rothkopf M, Gallagher-Thompson D "J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol" 2008 ; 3 (21) : 159-65
• Impact of in-home behavioral management versus telephone support to reduce depressive symptoms and perceived stress in Chinese caregivers: results of a pilot study. Gallagher-Thompson D, Gray HL, Tang PC, Pu CY, Leung LY, Wang PC, Tse C, Hsu S, Kwo E, Tong HQ, Long J, Thompson LW "Am J Geriatr Psychiatry" 2007 ; 5 (15) : 425-34
• Exciting advances in family caregiver research. Gallagher-Thompson D, "Aging Ment Health" 2007 ; 6 (11) : 613-5