Thomas Ritz

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CURRICULUM VITAE

Dr. Ritz is currently accepting new graduate students

RESEARCH SUMMARY

The major area of research in my laboratory is the psychobiology of emotion, stress, and chronic disease, with both basic research and translational treatment studies. Our work has a special focus on respiratory disease, anxiety disorders, and depression. Typical topics are the psychophysiology and psychoneuroimmunology of the airways; the neuroscience of asthma; the autonomic and respiratory regulation in stress, anxiety, and depression; the psychophysiology of vagal activity; illness perception and behavioral medicine interventions in chronic respiratory disease; psychobiologically informed treatments for asthma, blood-injection-injury phobia, panic disorder, and anhedonia.

SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS (*student authors or co-authors)

Craske, M., Meuret, A.M., Echiverri-Cohen, A., Rosenfield, D., & Ritz, T. (2023). Positive affect treatment targets reward sensitivity: A randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology, 91, 350-366.

*Kroll, J.L. & Ritz, T. (2023) Asthma, the central nervous system, and neurocognition: Current findings, potential mechanisms, and treatment implications. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 146,105063.

Meuret, A.E., Rosenfield, D., Millard, M.M. & Ritz, T. (2023). Hypoventilation training to increase PCO₂ in asthma with elevated anxiety: A one-stop treatment for both conditions? Psychosomatic Medicine, 85, 440-448

*Salsman, M.L., Nordberg, H.O., Howell, J., Berthet-Miron, M.M., Rosenfield, D., & Ritz, T. (2023). Psychological distress and symptom-related burnout in asthma during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 25, 1-13.

*Nordberg, H., *Kroll, J.L., Rosenfield, D., Chmielewski, M., Ritz, T. (2022). Chronic stress experience, sleep, and physical activity: Relations with change in negative affect and acute stress response to a naturalistic stressor. British Journal of Health Psychology, 27, 449-467.

Ritz, T., Schulz, S.M., Rosenfield, D., Wright R.J., & Bosquet Enlow, M. (2020). Cardiac sympathetic activation and parasympathetic withdrawal during psychosocial stress exposure in six-month old infants. Psychophysiology, 57, e13673.

Ritz, T., *Kroll, J.L., Patel, S.V., Chen, J.R., Khan, D.A., Pinkham, A.E., Yezhuvath, U., Aslan, S. & Brown, E.S. (2019). Central nervous system signatures of affect in asthma: Associations with emotion-induced bronchoconstriction, airway inflammation, and asthma control. Journal of Applied Physiology, 126, 1725-1736.

Ritz, T., *Werchan. C.A., *Kroll, J.L., & Rosenfield, D. (2019). Beetroot juice supplementation for the prevention of cold symptoms associated with stress: A proof-of-concept study. Physiology & Behavior, 202, 45-51.

*Werchan. C.A., *Steele, A.M., Janssens, T., Millard, M.W., & Ritz, T. (2019). Towards an assessment of perceived COPD exacerbation triggers: Initial development and validation of a questionnaire measure. Respirology. 24, 48-54.