Study of Affective Disorders' Classification and Treatment - Sadcat Lab

02/06/2026

Our department clinic is doing free psychological assessments! If you've ever been curious about whether you have a diagnosis, now is the time to find out (for free!)

This page is for Prof. Lorenzo-Luaces' research lab at IU Bloomington. I am interested in the treatment of depression and related disorders.

08/25/2025

Happy FDOC! With the start of the new school year, we wanted to reintroduce the lab. Meet the Study of Affective Disorders' Classification and Treatment (SADCAT) Lab leadership! 🐈

The SADCAT Lab is currently housed at Indiana University - Bloomington in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences. We study internalizing symptoms like depression and anxiety with a focus on cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBTs), the role of technology in mental health and its treatment, and the application of data science methods to clinical psychology.

The rest of the lab intro posts are pending soon... Get ready to meet our grad students and research assistants!

02/18/2025

Friends and colleagues in academia:
Please participate in my study and share it anywhere there are academics! I am currently running a survey on how academics, including graduate students, any kind of faculty (e.g., tenured, non-tenured), administration, and others (e.g., postdocs), think and feel about the recent executive orders addressing diversity equity and inclusion (DEI) and related topics, including health equity research as well as potential changes to grant funding.
I’ll only survey you once and the survey should take 5-10 minutes. You can find the survey link here: https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_egLjgV21dr16ZCe

Let me say a little bit more about the study. The survey concerns your thoughts and feelings about executive orders relating to academia. It is meant for people who work in academia, very broadly defined. Questions are structured so only information essential to the research is asked, to avoid so-called deductive disclosure.

Every question is optional. The survey is asking for your email, which is optional, not a requirement to participate. The reason emails are being collected is in case there is any issue with the quality of respondents like “bots” or other people maliciously taking the survey. I plan to do a sensitivity analysis exploring whether there are differences in outcomes when people provide e-mail vs. not. Additionally, I’d explore effects of responses from emails that appear invalid (e.g., [email protected]) or are otherwise suspicious. I’d use the highest quality subset of the data that the results of that sensitivity analysis support.

Please share with other academics. We are interested in everyone’s opinions: https://iu.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_egLjgV21dr16ZCe

10/23/2024

🎉🧠 Join us in celebrating Associate Department Chair Lorenzo Lorenzo-Luaces who was awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) to investigate the relationship between the language youth use on social media and their mental health.

06/21/2023

06/05/2023

02/22/2023

02/20/2023

We haven't posted updates in a while but pretty soon we will start recruiting again! We are especially interested in having men participate in the research.

07/22/2021

Recruiting black youth for an Indiana University study!

Check out Dr. Lorenzo-Luaces's FAQs for interested PhD student applicants! https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jBd6zZpHBP4IUl2xs3aqIcyjs8hS9bsJxmnrp-pcUkg/edit​

06/10/2021

We're promoting a study from another researcher, Ms. Miller who is studying use of self-help in the black community. From the researcher: "Here is the link to the Qualtrics screener: https://suffolk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_20kgZmPJO3r5JBQ

Best,
Alexandria Miller

My research team and I are writing to tell you about a research study that could be beneficial for Black adults who are struggling with worry, stress, or anxiety. Participants in this study get a free copy of the self-help book, Worry Less, Live More by Drs. Susan Orsillo and Lizabeth Roemer. They are asked to fill out questionnaires before and after reading it to help us learn more about its potential effectiveness.

The self-help book, Worry Less, Live More, has been shown to be effective in a pilot study. Although Black people were well represented in this study, the sample was too small for us to explore the relevance and usefulness of the book to Black people specifically. Worry Less, Live More is based on a type of therapy that acknowledges the injustices and racial stressors that Black people face, validates responses to those stressors, and offers ways of coping that help people live their lives in personally meaningful ways. In this study, we hope to gather information will be useful in the development and dissemination of evidence-based, culturally relevant treatments. Please forward our recruitment flyer (see attached) to anyone who may be eligible and interested.

Why is This Research Important?
• Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health struggles reported by Black people.
• The anxiety experienced by Black people tends to persist longer and cause more impairment in day to day functioning than in other populations.
• Systemic racism, structural barriers and stigma limit Black people’s access to evidence-based treatments and self-help may help break down some of those barriers

Eligibility
• People who identify as Black, African-American, African, Afro-Latin American, Black Latin American, Multiracial, or Mixed (Black and another race), who were born and currently live in the United States, who struggle with worry, stress, and/or anxiety, and are over 18, and can read English may be eligible for the study.
• Participants currently in therapy and those with serious mental illness are not eligible to participate.

Here is the link to the Qualtrics screener: https://suffolk.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_20kgZmPJO3r5JBQ

We would be very grateful if you were willing to share this with potentially eligible participants. Please feel free to contact us at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.

Warmly,
Alexandria Miller, Psychology Doctoral Student ([email protected])
Susan Orsillo, Professor of Psychology ([email protected])"

Qualtrics sophisticated online survey software solutions make creating online surveys easy. Learn more about Research Suite and get a free account today.

06/01/2021

We haven’t recruited for a while but we got approval from our IRB and the NIH to begin recruiting for our guided self-help study. More to come soon 👀