Staff Psychologist, Mental Health Service, SFVAMC
Assistant Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry, UCSF

Email: Shannon.McCaslin@va.gov

Dr. McCaslin's research is focused on risk and resilience factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans, police, and disaster responders. She has examined the ways in which negative life events following disaster response have an impact on recovery among disaster responders, and how factors such as type of trauma exposure and traits such as alexithymia (inability to describe or cope with feelings) and dissociation (emotional and psychological detachment) relate to the development of PTSD among police. She has also studied the nature of the relationship of PTSD to posttraumatic growth among individuals in Sri Lanka. Dr. McCaslin's current research studies are focused on the impact of PTSD on overall quality of life and functioning among veterans. In particular, her research aims to understand the behavioral and biological mechanisms that distinguish those with PTSD who experience little functional impairment versus those who develop an often progressive and disabling form of PTSD, with the goal of developing interventions that have the potential to preserve functioning and mitigate disability.

McCaslin SE, Metzler TJ, Best SR, Liberman A, Weiss DS, Fagan J, Marmar CR. 2006. Alexithymia and PTSD symptoms in urban police officers: Cross-sectional and prospective findings. Journal of Traumatic Stress 19(3):361-373.

McCaslin SE, Inslicht SS, Metzler TJ, Henn-Haase C, Maguen S, Neylan TC, Choucroun G, Marmar CR. 2008. Trait dissociation predicts PTSD symptoms in a prospective study of urban police officers. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease (in press).