Lisa M. McAndrew

Dr. McAndrew joined the Counseling Division in 2013. The overarching goal of her research is to improve the self-management of chronic conditions. Specifically, her work seeks to understand patients’ views of their health and to use this information to develop patient centered behavioral interventions. Her research has focused on Veterans and patients with diabetes.

Veterans: Dr. McAndrew is the PI on VA funded randomized clinical trial to examine if Problem-Solving Therapy improves the disability of Gulf War Veterans with Gulf War Illness. This multi-site study will examine the efficacy of a cognitive rehabilitation treatment, Problem-Solving Therapy, for Gulf War Veterans. Dr. McAndrew is also the PI on two major longitudinal studies of Veterans conducted at the Veterans Affairs. The first follows 1,200 Veterans with post-deployment health concerns seen at VA clinics in New Jersey, California or Washington DC. Veterans are surveyed every six months to determine predictors in health function and treatment seeking. Dr. McAndrew is also co-leading a prospective study of 790 Iraqi and Afghanistan soldiers surveyed pre-deployment to one year post-deployment. She was awarded funding to extend this study to five years post deployment. These studies include collaborators from all over the United States and have lead to a number of manuscripts published in high tiered journals. Dr. McAndrew is also conducting pilot studies examining the efficacy of Behavioral Activation for Veterans with post-deployment health concerns and a daily diary study examining the relationship of daily activities and symptoms of Veterans with post-deployment health concerns.

Diabetes: Dr. McAndrew has conducted a number of studies seeking to understand patients’ views of diabetes self-management using qualitative, survey methods and clinical trials. She received a pilot grant to fund this work from the NIH supported Center for the Study of Health Beliefs and Behaviors. This funding has led to significant program of research on the efficacy of self-monitoring of blood glucose for patients with type 2 diabetes.

Research Interests

• Veterans
• Diabetes
• Self-management of chronic illness
• Medically unexplained physical symptoms
• Post-deployment health

Other

• Dr. McAndrew is a clinical researcher at the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the Veterans Affairs New Jersey Healthcare System, an Assistant Professor at Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences, New Jersey Medical School, Department of Psychiatry and an Associate with Rutgers University, Institute of Health, Healthcare Policy and Aging Research