John P. Coetzee, PhD
VA Polytrauma Post Doctoral Resident
- Dr. Coetzee obtained his BA in Psychology from UC Berkeley, where he worked in a sleep and psychopathology lab. He then worked in a depression lab at UCSF before entering a PhD program at UCLA, where he conducted research on the relationship between language and thought under the guidance of Dr. Martin Monti.
- After completing his doctorate in Cognitive Neuroscience, he returned to the Bay Area where he currently is a postdoctoral researcher with dual appointments at the Palo Alto VA in the lab of Dr. Maheen Adamson, where he is developing new treatments for traumatic brain injury, and the Brain Stimulation Lab, where he is developing new treatments for depression.
- In both labs, Dr. Coetzee's focus is on utilizing novel brain stimulation techniques to probe and modulate the neural networks underlying neuropsychiatric diseases/disorders, in order to develop new models and treatments.
- Dr. Coetzee is involved in several active studies involving conditions such as posttraumatic headache, treatment-resistant depression, chronic pain, suicidal ideation, and obsessive-compulsive disorder, utilizing techniques such as theta burst stimulation, low intensity focused ultrasound, brain age estimation algorithms, heart rate variability, and digital neurocognitive assessment of psychopathology.
VA Polytrauma Monthly Seminar
Dissemination of research findings on traumatic brain injury and related conditions, primarily among US Veterans.
Brain Aging and Traumatic Brain Injury
- Dr. Coetzee presents Brain Aging and Traumatic Brain Injury. The talk focused on people with a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as they are at increased risk for developing dementia and tend to develop dementia at earlier ages than the general population.
- Dr.While the source of this increased vulnerability is not well understood, there is evidence that it may involve accelerated aging processes in the brain.
- Coetzee reviewed the evidence for a connection between heightened dementia risk in TBI, and accelerated aging in the brains of TBI patients, and will consider whether these processes can be measured effectively by applying brain age algorithms to structural MRI scans, a procedure which may eventually allow us to identify individuals at heightened risk in order to target them for early interventions.
VA Polytrauma Monthly Seminar
Dissemination of research findings on traumatic brain injury and related conditions, primarily among US Veterans.
Meditation as Trauma Therapy
Results from a randomized clinical trial comparing a Breathing-Based Meditation to Cognitive Processing Therapy for Treating PTSD Symptoms in Military Veterans.
- Dr. Coetzee presents on the growing interest of breathing-based meditation for treating Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
- Breathing-based meditation involves awareness re-training of the previously uncounscious process of breathing to rapidly impact emotion.
- Sudarshan Kriya Yoga (SKY) a type of breathing-based meditation previously shown to effectively treat PTSD.
- Dr. Coetzee presents on the first study comparing SKY with the gold-standard trauma therapy treatment known as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT).
- Results from a randomized controlled noninferiority trial show that SKY was statistically not inferior to standard treatment CPT in reducing PTSD symptoms and depression.
- Findings are presented in the context of a growing number of studies showing integrative health approaches effectively treat PTSD.