Sanders-Brown Faculty

Deborah D. Danner, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor

Departmental Affiliation(s):

Preventive Medicine/Family Practice and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging

Research Focus:

Dr. Danner is a developmental psychologist with an interest in the arousal and expression of basic emotional states and how the emotional lives of the elderly affect their quality of life. Her research has focused on how positive emotional expression enhances longevity and how normal aging and degenerative neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s alter emotional arousal and expression. The long-term goals of her studies have been to provide an understanding of what arouses emotion so as to increase the positive emotions of happiness, amusement and interest and enhance the relationship between patients and those who provide care. Dr. Danner participated in a multi-site NIA funded research project that examined ethical issues involved in informing patients with diminished capacity of the risks and benefits of research participation. She is currently the principal investigator of an Administration of Aging grant to increase awareness of the signs of dementia and the utilization of diagnostic and family services in the African-American population in the Lexington Bluegrass area.

Recent Publications:

Stocking, C., Hougham, G., Whitehouse, P., Danner, D, Patterson, M. & Sachs, G. (2007). “Empirical assessment of a research advance directive for persons with dementia and their proxies". Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 55:1609-1612.