Autumn Paulson Office: 2131 Bio-Psyc E-mail: apaulson@psyc.umd.edu

Background Information

I am a fourth year graduate student in the Clinical Psychology program.  I completed my undergraduate education and received my Bachelor of Science in Psychology at College of Charleston in Charleston, S.C. in 2000.  I then spent a year and a half living with my husband in Thailand before moving to Maryland to begin graduate school.

Research Interests

Although I focused exclusively on anxiety disorders during my first two years at UMD, my current primary research interests include risk factors of use and relapse of addictive substances (e.g., heroin, cocaine) and how anxiety may relate to those issues.  Presently, I am looking at whether or not anxiety sensitivity, a component of anxiety which refers to a person’s fear of the physical, cognitive, and social sequelae of anxiety, differs across individuals who use various drug classes.  Additionally, I will examine other aspects of anxiety such as prevalence rates of the anxiety disorders as well as reported levels of selected anxiety measures.  In addition to these interests, I am involved in running a NIDA-funded longitudinal study looking at the role of distress tolerance, the ability to persist in stressful contexts, in cessation attempts and relapse rates across a variety of drug classes. 

Outside Interests

When I am not involved in the attainment of more scholarly achievements, I enjoy spending time with my husband and our three 4-legged “children” (a stocky Corgi-mix and 2 svelte grey tabbies), quilting, watching movies, running, and taking walks in the woods (particularly in fall).

Selected Publications

Lejuez, C.W., Paulson, A., Daughters, S.B., Bornovalova, M.A., & Zvolensky, M.J. (in press). The association between heroin use and anxiety sensitivity among inner-city individuals in residential drug use treatment.  Behaviour Research & Therapy. 

Beidel, D.C, Turner, S.M., Young, B., & Paulson, A.  (2005).  Social Effectiveness Therapy for Children:  Three year follow-up.  Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 73, 721-725.

Beidel, D.C. & Paulson, A. (2004). Etiology and treatment of childhood social phobias.  In M. Maj, H.S. Akiskal, J.J. López-Ibor, & A. Okasha (Eds.), Evidence and experience in psychiatry (p. 288-289).  New York: John Wiley and Sons.

Selected Presentations

Paulson, A., Daughters, S. B., Bornovalova, M. A., Belendiuk, K., Lejuez, C. W. (2005). The Association between Heroin Use and Anxiety Sensitivity among Inner-City Individuals in Residential Drug Use Treatment.  Poster presented at The College on Problems of Drug Dependence 67^th Annual Conference:  Orlando, FL.

Shackman, D.A., Paulson, A., Beidel, D.C., & Turner, S.M. (2003, Nov).  Social Skills Deficits versus Social Skills Inhibition in Socially Anxious Individuals.  Poster presented at the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy 37^th Annual Conference:  Boston, MA.