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Chronic Illness Psychology at Swinburne

Chronic Illness psychology studies

Staff from the chronic illness psychology area teach in the following areas:

Staff in chronic illness psychology

Person	Position	Research interests
Associate Professor David Austin	Associate Professor (Available to supervise to Doctoral level)	The use of information/communication technology in psychological assessment and treatment Cognitive models of anxiety and depression Biological variables in anxiety and depression Progressive models of care in mental health systems Biological bases of autism Biomedical treatment of autism Etiology of Autism The use of information/communication technology to assist individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder
Dr Sunil Bhar	Senior Lecturer (Available to supervise to Masters level)	Reminisence and mental health outcomes Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and self-beliefs Risk and protective factors for suicide Psychotherapy with older adults Psychotherapy processes and outcomes in university based clinics
Ms Gordana Bruce	Manager CATI Facility
Dr Simon Knowles	Senior Lecturer (Available to supervise to Doctoral level)	Psychological and biopsychological aspects of chronic medical conditions, especially involving the Brain-Gut-Axis (e.g., Irritable Bowel Syndrome, Inflammatory Bowel Disease). Other research interest include: Psychoimmunity, impact of shiftwork on health, stress and coping, and issues associated with Consultation Liaison (CL) Psychiatry.
Professor Michael Kyrios	Professor (Available to supervise to Doctoral level)	Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and related disorders (e.g. compulsive buying and hoarding) from neuropsychological, cognitive-behavioural, and treatment perspectives psychological aspects of chronic medical conditions such as diabetes the management of depression in primary care he use of cognitive-behavioural therapies (CBT) in the management of psychological disorders in a range of settings including primary care the integration of brain and psychological sciences
Professor Greg Murray	Professor (Available to supervise to Doctoral level)	Bipolar Disorders: description, explanation and maximising wellbeing Biological timing and the circadian system Sleep Emotion regulation History of ideas Creativity Scale-invariant organisation in the time domain Peter Hanley (PhD candidate): Emotion experience and emotion regulation Sarah Fraser (DPsych candidate): Cyclothymic temperament and relationships Simmone Poulios (DPsych candidate): Sleep and vulnerability to Bipolar Disorder Catherine Cronin (DPsych candidate): Treatment outcomes in Bipolar Disorder James Collett (DPsych candidate): Individual differences in reward sensitivity Sarah Buckingham (PhD candidate): Emotion regulation Ida Torneus (DPsych candidate): Clinical implications of biological rhythmicity Tamsyn van Rheenen (PhD candidate): social/emotional processing and reward sensitivity in bipolar disorder Nuwan Leitan (PhD candidate): Situational effects on cognitive judgements
Dr Maja Nedeljkovic	Post Doctoral Research Fellow (Available to supervise to Doctoral level)	Anxiety Disorders, particularly obsessive compulsive disorder, Body dysmorphic disorder, Eating disorders. Psychological models of psychopathology and treatment related issues; Epidemiology; Health program evaluation; Health economics.
Dr Anna Thomas	Research Fellow	A major interest area is factors leading to behavioural and substance-based addictions, and factors which may assist in recovery from these problems. My research in the past few years has been around theoretical modelling and testing of predictors of problem gambling as well as examining barriers to treatment for people with comorbid anxiety/depression and substance-based addictions. I am particularly interested in way individual/psychological factors and socio-environmental factors inter-relate in determining problem behaviours and relapse. In line with this, I am interested in conducting research to determine which factors which may be core to addiction (ie predictive of many/all addictions) and factors which are discriminative (ie predictive of one addiction but not others). I am interested in expanding my research into other behavioural addictions, for example behaviours related to the internet (i.e., internet-based gambling, social networking, multi-player gaming).