(formerly James A. Carter)
Major Research Theme:
Psychology and behavioral health. Developing and evaluating interactive multimedia programs for preventing, assessing, and managing psychosocial and behavioral problems. Self-instructional training on adaptation to life in isolated and extreme environments.
Division Faculty Interviewed on Earth & Sky radio show
Dr. James Cartreine was interviewed about his research, developing a computer-based depression treatment for astronauts on long space missions. Click here to listen to the interview. Dr. Cartreine recently completed a pilot study comparing the self-guided depression treatment to a 7-week waiting list condition. In that study, persons using the program expereienced a 53% decrease in depression, compared to an 11% decrease among persons on the waiting list. The difference in improvement between the groups was statistically significant, and a large clinical effect size was achieved.
Division Faculty gives Keynote at Informatics Conference
James Cartreine, PhD, delivered a keynote address at the Health Informatics New Zealand 2009 conference. He spoke about his research developing behavioral informatics programs for NASA. Dr. Cartreine was also interviewed by New Zealand television news about his research, which can be seen here. Dr. Cartreine has been involved in the development and evaluation of computer-based training and behavioral interventions for astronauts since 2001. He has been Princiapal Investigator on 3 studies and co-investigator/collaborator on 2 studies funded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute.
Division Faculty Returns from Research Expedition in Nepal
James A. Cartreine, PhD, recently returned from a research expedition to the Mt. Everest base camp in Nepal. Dr. Cartreine spent 6 weeks studying psychological factors and team dynamics and their relationship to climb outcomes. Part of the study is intended to identify the extent to which Everest climbers resemble astronauts from a psychosocial perspective, and the extent to which climbing teams resemble space crews. This information is the first step in exploring whether high-altitude climbers and climbing teams might be useful analogs for the evaluation of tools to help astronauts function more effectively on space missions. Another part of Dr. Cartreine's research is geared toward understanding the extent to which climbers experience potentially traumatic incidents, such as near-death experience or the loss of climbing partners, and the effects of such incidents on their psychosocial functioning and mountaineering performance. The study is ongoing, with climbers completing Web-based follow-up surveys. Dr. Cartreine is collaborating with Dr. Claudia Zayfert, of Dartmouth Medical School, Dr. Greg Feldman, of Simmons College, and colleagues at NASA-Ames Research Center and Johns Hopkins University.
Division Faculty Demonstrates NASA Project to Congress
Dr. James Cartreine demonstrated his NASA system to members of Congress and their staffers on March 25, 2009. Dr. Cartreine, Dr. Locke, and others are developing The Virtual Space Station, a suite of interactive, multimedia programs to help astronauts prevent, assess and manage their own psychosocial problems on extended missions. The science demonstration was sponsored by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute to highlight medical advances in the U.S. space program.
Division Faculty Awarded Grant
James A. Cartreine, PhD, recently was awarded a grant to develop and evaluate a self-guided, interactive media-based intervention to help astronauts manage ongoing conflicts onboard long-duration space flights. The program is not intended for use as a general training, but instead will be geared toward astronauts who are in real, ongoing conflicts. The program will be evaluated with first responders firefighters and emergency medical technicians from fire and rescue departments in at least 5 major metropolitan areas. This will be the first intervention for co-worker conflict ever to be empirically evaluated in any workplace or industry. This major grant similar in scale to an R-01 was awarded by the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, which is funded through a cooperative agreement with NASA. The study will run from 2009 through 2013.
