Jack Nassau, PhD, earned his undergraduate degree at Brown University and doctoral degree in psychology at Case Western Reserve University. He completed a pre-doctoral internship in clinical child psychology at Children's Hospital Boston and a post-doctoral fellowship at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University. His clinical interests focus on pediatric pain management, specifically headache pain and abdominal pain.
Research Interests
Jack Nassau's research focuses on the psychological influences on pediatric chronic medical illness. He is particularly interested in the effect of stress on immune function in children and adolescents with chronic medical conditions such as asthma and inflammatory bowel disease, and in the effectiveness of multidisciplinary family therapy on the psychological and health outcomes of children and adolescents with functional pain complaints.
Currently, he has National Institutes of Health funding to study the effect of stress on immune system mediators of airway inflammation in adolescents with asthma. The study investigates whether among some adolescents with asthma, psychosocial stress induces a shift in immunity that supports inflammatory processes in the lungs, and whether the degree of immune change is associated with the degree of stress experienced by the subject. Another study examines the effect of stress on immune mediators of intestinal inflammation in adolescents with Crohn's disease to explore whether the immune response to stress is similar in people who have different immune-mediated diseases or whether the immunological characteristics of the disease play a role in how stress influences the immune system.
Other active areas of interest include evaluating the quality of life, family functioning, and psychosocial functioning of children and adolescents with a variety of illnesses (such as diabetes and functional pain syndromes) who have been referred for treatment in the Hasbro Children's Partial Hospital Program. The goal is to show that children and adolescents with a variety of illnesses can benefit from a common family-based treatment.
Locations
Primary
Hasbro Children's Partial Hospital Program
Hasbro Children's Hospital
(directions)
593 Eddy Street
Providence, RI 02903
Education
- Post Graduate: Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
- Internship: Boston Children's Hospital
- Fellowship: The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University
Publications
Selected Publications
McQuaid, E.L., Kopel, S., and Nassau, J.H. (2001). Behavioral adjustment in children with asthma: A meta-analysis. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
Feldman, J.M., Eisenberg, E.J., Gambini-Suarez, E., and Nassau, J.H. (in press). Differential effects of stress management therapies on emotional and behavioral disorders. To appear in P. Lehrer (Ed.), Principles and Practice of Stress Management - 3rd ed.
Roesler, T.A., Rickerby, M.L., Nassau, J.H., and High, P.C. (2002). Treating a high risk population: A collaboration of child psychiatry and pediatrics. Medicine and Health\Rhode Island 85, 265-268.
Fritz, G.K., Rosenblum, K., Klein, R.B., McQuaid, E.L., Nassau, J.H., Wamboldt, M.Z., Carter, R., and Mansell, A. (2001). Improved methodology for threshold detection studies in asthmatic children. Journal of Psychophysiology 15, 190-197.
McQuaid, E.L., Kopel, S., and Nassau, J.H. (2001). Behavioral adjustment in children with asthma: A metaanalysis. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics 22, 430-439.
McQuaid, E.L., Penza-Clyve, S., Nassau, J.H., Fritz, G.K., Klein, R., O'Connor, S., Wamboldt, F., and Gavin, L. (2001). The asthma responsibility questionnaire: Patterns of family responsibility for asthma management. Children's Health Care 30, 183-199.
McQuaid, E.L., Fritz, G.K., Nassau, J.H., Lilly, M.K., Mansell, A., and Klein, R.B. (2000). Stress and airway resistance in children with asthma. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 49, 239-245.
Nassau, J.H., Fritz, G.K., and McQuaid, E.L. (2000). Repressive defensive style and physiological reactivity among children and adolescents with asthma. Journal of Psychosomatic Research 48, 133-140.
Fritz, G.K., McQuaid, E.L., Nassau, J.H., and Mansell, T. (1999). Resistive-load detection in children with asthma. Pediatric Pulmonology 28, 271-276.
McQuaid, E.L., and Nassau, J.H. (1999). Empirically supported treatments in pediatric psychology: Asthma, diabetes, and cancer. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 24, 305-328.
Nassau, J.H., and Drotar, D. (1997). Social competence among children with central nervous system (CNS)-related chronic health conditions: A review. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 22, 771-793.
Nassau, J.H., and Drotar, D. (1995). Social competence in children with IDDM and asthma: Child, teacher, and parent reports of children's social adjustment, social performance and social skills. Journal of Pediatric Psychology 20, 187-204.
Brown, L.K., Barone, V.J., Fritz, G.K., Cebollero, P., and Nassau, J.H. (1991). AIDS education: The Rhode Island experience. Health Education Quarterly 18, 195-206.
Brown, L.K., Nassau, J.H., and Levy, V. (1991). "What upsets me most about AIDS is...": A survey of children and adolescents. AIDS Education and Prevention 2, 296-304.
Brown, L.K., Nassau, J.H., and Barone, V.J. (1990). Differences in AIDS knowledge and attitudes by grade level. Journal of School Health 60, 270-275.