Adele Hayes
Adele Hayes
Office location
University of Delaware, 105 The Green, Room 226, Wolf Hall, Newark, DE 19716
Lab
302-831-2215
Education
- Ph.D. – State University of New York - Stony Brook
- Masters Program – American University, Washington, D.C.
- B.A. – University of Baltimore, Baltimore, MD
Biography
Adele Hayes, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at the University of Delaware. Her focuses on identifying mechanisms of therapeutic change that are common across cognitive-behavioral therapies for depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
She studies the process of change in the context of dynamic systems theory, which involves the study of associative networks, system flexibility, destabilization of pathological patterns, and the development of new patterns or attractors. She studies system change in three disorders characterized by entrenched patterns of avoidance and chronic, unproductive processing: depression, PTSD, and personality disorders (avoidant and obsessive-compulsive).
On the basis of this research, Hayes developed a treatment for depression, exposure-based cognitive therapy (EBCT). This treatment applies principles of exposure and emotional processing from interventions for PTSD and general principles of change from dynamic systems theory. EBCT has been evaluated in two open trials and in a randomized controlled trial that compared EBCT to cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which was conducted in Switzerland by Dr. Martin Grosse Holtforth. EBCT was associated with significant improvement in depression and large effect sizes in all three trials. Hayes is developing a smartphone app to accompany the treatment and to give feedback on risk and wellness factors to help prevent relapse.
Hayes is also investigating the roles of avoidance, unproductive processing, depressive network destabilization, and therapeutic emotional processing in CBT for treatment-resistant depression with Dr. Willem Kuyken and colleagues in England. The overall goal of this program of research is to develop more potent treatments for depression and to reduce the risk for relapse in this often recurrent disorder.
Courses Regularly Taught
PSYC 827-010: Adult Psychotherapy: Empirically-Supported Treatments
PSYC 827-010: Adult Psychopathology
PSYC 834-012: Clinical Supervision (Depression rotation)
PSYC 380: Psychopathology (undergraduate)
Research Projects
Area: Clinical Science
Dr. Hayes is studying the process of change in two treatments for PTSD: Trauma-focused CBT (TF-CBT) for traumatized youth and prolonged exposure (PE) for adults. Her NIMH-funded study aims to identify predictors of dropout and treatment outcomes in TF-CBT delivered in community mental health centers in Delaware (collaborators Dr. Charles Webb, Dr. Esther Deblinger). Dr. Hayes is also collaborating with Dr. Lori Zoellner and Norah Feeney (PIs) on an NIMH-funded grant to study the process of change in a large clinical trial of PE for adult PTSD. A goal of this collaboration is to identify key mechanisms of therapeutic change that are common in the treatment of PTSD and depression and to develop more potent treatments for these commonly comorbid clinical disorders.
Dr. Hayes is collaborating with Drs. Stephan Bohacek and Hui Fang in Computer Engineering at the University of Delaware to develop and test a smartphone application (app) that provides ongoing monitoring and feedback on risk and resilience factors as depressed participants engage in their everyday lives during and after treatment. This tool might help reduce the chronicity of depression and facilitate more lasting change.
Dr. Hayes is collaborating with Dr. Willem Kuyken at Oxford University and researchers at the University of Exeter to study the process of change in a multi-site trial of cognitive-behavioral therapy for treatment-resistant depression. They are particularly interested in identifying predictors of early improvement and long-term maintenance of treatment gains.
EBCT builds on principles of exposure treatments that have been so successful in the treatment of anxiety disorders and on principles of general system change from dynamical systems theory. EBCT has shown positive clinical outcomes in three clinical trials, and Dr. Hayes is studying the pattern of change and predictors of treatment outcomes in these trials. Funding: National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH; PI: Hayes) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (PI: Grosse Holtforth).
