Margaret Kemeny, PhD

PhD, University of California, San Francisco
Professor
Director, Health Psychology Program

Phone: (415) 476-7620
Fax: (415-746-7744
E-mail: kemenym@healthpsych.ucsf.edu

Osher Center for Integrative Medicine
Department of Psychiatry

Research Interests:

My training is in health psychology and clinical immunology and my research is in the field of psychoneuroimmunology. I am particularly interested in the effects of psychological factors and neurophysiologic mechanisms on inflammatory processes and diseases of inflammation. My research focuses in two areas of psychoneuroimmunology. First, I study expectancies, their neurophysiological and immunological effects and health consequences. I have conducted a number of studies of disease-specific expectancies in HIV infection. As part of a MacArthur Foundation funded network on the placebo response, I am involved in a multi-site study investigating the role of expectancies in the placebo response in asthmatic patients, and the pathophysiological mechanisms that explain these effects.

Secondly, I am interested in the physiological and health consequences of threats to “social” self as mediated by alterations in self schemas and the experience of self-conscious emotions such as shame. Our theoretical framework is based, in part, on the animal model of subordination and submissive behavior. In particular, we focus on the effects of social self threats on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the cytokine network (particularly pro-inflammatory cytokines) as well as the role of these products as inducers of disengagement related behaviors.

Selected Publications:

Dickerson SS, Kemeny ME, Aziz N, Kim KH, & Fahey JL. (2004). Immunological effects of induced shame and guilt, Psychosomatic Medicine, 66, 124-131.

Kemeny, ME. (2003). An interdisciplinary research model to investigate psychosocial cofactors in disease: Application to HIV-1 pathogenesis. Brain, Behavior and Immunity, 17, S62-72.

Cole SW, Naliboff BD, Kemeny ME, et al. (2001). Impaired response to HAART in HIV-infected individuals with high autonomic nervous system activity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98, 12695-12700.

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