NCCIH Research Blog

Stress and adversity experienced during early development can exert a profound and persistent imprint on our physiology, brain, and health across the lifespan. This imprint can lead to long-term health outcomes ranging from substance use and depression to obesity and cardiovascular disease. There is also emerging evidence that stress and adversity may be transmitted from one generation to the next, but protective experiences may prevent or mitigate these effects. 

On Tuesday, December 13, 2022 from 2 to 3:15 p.m. ET, the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health (NCCIH) will present a virtual talk by Laura Stroud, Ph.D., exploring these topics, with a special focus on child, adolescent, and maternal mental health. 

Dr. Stroud, a prominent researcher and clinician at the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and The Miriam Hospital, Providence, Rhode Island, will speak on “From the Mouths of Babes: What Can Research on Babies, Moms, Stress, and Substance Use Tell Us About Resilience?”

Her virtual lecture is the 2022 Stephen E. Straus Distinguished Lecture in the Science of Complementary Therapies, which honors the founding director of NCCIH. All interested persons are welcome and registration is required (no charge). The lecture is presented by NCCIH and supported by the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health with a generous gift from Bernard and Barbro Osher.

Dr. Stroud’s professional roles include

• Professor of obstetrics and gynecology; behavioral and social sciences; and psychiatry and human behavior at the Alpert Medical School.
• Director and principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Center of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) for Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (STAR). The center has as a focus transformative research on isolating and disentangling biological/behavioral mechanisms of risk and resilience following exposure to stress, trauma, and adversity during sensitive periods of development.
• Director and senior research scientist at the Center for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine and founding director of the Maternal-Infant Studies Laboratory and the Child and Adolescent Stress Laboratory of The Miriam Hospital.

Dr. Stroud’s work has been continuously funded by NIH since 2001. The focus of her studies aligns with several of NCCIH’s research interests, including resilience; health restoration (also called “salutogenesis”); mental, emotional, and behavioral health in children and youth; and stress.  

We hope you will register to attend and share the word with friends and colleagues about this fascinating lecture!  

For More Information

From the Mouths of Babes: What Can Research on Babies, Moms, Stress, and Substance Use Tell Us About Resilience?