Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, PhD

10/16/2018 4:00:00 PM IHSI

Prof. Sandraluz Lara-CinisomoSandraluz Lara-Cinisomo, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Community Health in the College of Applied Health Sciences. According to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health, each year about 1 in 5 women experience some form of mental health issue. Professor Sandraluz Lara-Cinisomo focuses her research on these mental health disparities in minority women.

What is your research in maternal and child health about?
My program of research focuses on addressing mental health disparities in women and mothers, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, immigrants, and those affiliated with service members or veterans. I examine how psychosocial, cultural, structural, and physiological factors are associated with poor mental health in my populations of interest. For example, my studies have examined how hormone levels (e.g., oxytocin and cortisol) are associated with perinatal depression (depression in pregnancy and postpartum) in Latinas. I am especially interested in Latinas because they experience elevated levels of psychosocial stress and have high rates of perinatal depression compared to women in the general population in this country. I also examine how depression during the perinatal period is associated with health behaviors. For instance, I am conducting a multisite study on prenatal depression and diabetes self-management in a racially and ethnically diverse sample of women. This area of research is important because both of these conditions can have negative implications for the woman and her infant. In mothers, both diabetes and prenatal depression are risk factors for postpartum mood disorders. Depressive symptoms in mothers have been associated with poor overall health and pregnancy complications. Prenatal depression has also been associated with negative outcomes for the child, such as preterm birth and negative reactivity.

How are you conducting your research?
I take a multi-method approach to my research because it allows me to examine a number of contextual risk factors that can help explain mental health disparities in mothers. For instance, I used qualitative methods to identify treatment preferences in a sample of perinatal Latinas at risk for depression. By using focus groups, we were able to identify a number of strategies women used to address their mental health needs. This study also revealed that women in the study were less likely to seek mental health treatment as their first help-seeking behavior because they worried about losing their child or being medicated. These findings have implications for clinical care and inform interventions that can increase help-seeking behaviors in Latina mothers. I also use experimental designs to answer questions about the role of hormonal dysregulation in the development of perinatal depression in mothers. Previously, I used a cold pain stimulus to activate a stress response to allow for the collection of adrenocorticotropic hormone in women with and without postpartum depression. We found that women with a history of perinatal depression had lower adrenocorticotropic hormone levels than women without such histories. We also collected subjective pain responses during the experiment. The results indicated that compared to non-depressed women, mothers with depression reported higher pain intensity, but lower pain unpleasantness, which captures the affective aspect of pain. These findings have led to a feasibility study using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and thermal pain with women with and without postpartum depression. This collaborative effort with neuroscientists at Illinois will help us identify alterations in the neural mechanisms involved in pain perception in women with postpartum depression, which will contribute to the identification of appropriate, safe, nonaddictive, and acceptable approaches for treating pain in these women.

How does being a part of the Illinois community support and enhance your research?
Illinois has a number of resources that allow me to build on my prior research. For example, I have been able to secure internal funding to launch new lines of research, such as the study on diabetes self-management and prenatal depression, which is funded by the Center for Health, Aging and Disparities (CHAD). It truly is amazing that Illinois offers pilot funding that will lead to large-scale studies. I am also impressed by the support my department head (Amy Woods) and Dean (Dr. Hanley-Maxwell) provide on a regular basis. The College of Applied Health Sciences also hosts CHAD, which is an invaluable resource for faculty. I truly feel supported here!

Illinois also provides access to exceptional scientists who are wonderful to work with and are eager to collaborate. Many of these new colleagues are housed in different departments and colleges, which allows me to work with interdisciplinary teams to answer important questions related to maternal mental health. I have also been impressed by the passion undergraduate and graduate students have for research. Because of their motivation, I have been able to conduct new and exciting projects I only dreamed about before joining the Illinois faculty. Then there are the amazing local organizations who are eager to participate in research and are always gracious when we ask for their support. Equally important are study participants who are generous enough to share their time and insights. I am so grateful to community members who reach out to us or who express an interest in participating in my research. I believe the community is willing to participate in my research because they trust the Illinois name and reputation.

Do you have a personal story to share or path that led to your interest in this area of study?
As a high school student, a friend of the family shared that she worried that being depressed during pregnancy might have negatively affected her daughter, who was very quiet and shy. She shared that she felt a lot of guilt and worried that she might be the reason her daughter was so withdrawn. I could see the sadness in this woman’s face and wished I could help her feel better. In college, I heard more stories from mothers who reported feeling alone, sad, and isolated. Interestingly, the conversations often started with a discussion about how they wanted to help their children, but were not sure how to do so. In my eagerness to help mothers, I switched my major from kinesiology (I wanted to be a physical therapist) to child development. I thought that helping mothers understand their child’s developmental needs would help them feel empowered and less sad. However, over the years I realized that if I wanted to make a difference in the lives of children, I needed to start with mothers. Consequently, my research evolved into perinatal depression and I am very happy it did because my research aims to help mothers suffering with depression and it gives them a voice.

How will your research improve society or reach people? 
My research will help identify intervention points to meet the mental health needs of mothers represented in my studies. For example, my research on diabetes self-management and prenatal depression will help us develop interventions that will target specific factors that reduce women’s disease management self-efficacy while addressing their mental health needs. My studies on hormone function can help us understand the pathophysiology of depression in immigrant and Latina mothers, who experience high levels of perinatal depression. In speaking with mothers throughout the US, I have also come to realize that my research gives these women an opportunity to share their stories, which also helps other mothers. Many women in my studies report that they are participating because they want to help other mothers who might be suffering with depression. My research also takes the veil off perinatal depression so we can reduce, and ultimately eliminate, this debilitating disorder that haunts millions of mothers in this country. When I was in graduate school, a professor asked if I wanted to be an activist or a researcher—he was familiar with my involvement in social justice. I responded that my research is my form of activism. I conduct research with marginalized women so they can tell their story and not feel alone. By sharing mothers’ stories through my findings, I can inform services and resources directed at addressing mothers’ mental health needs.