About Our Lab
Our primary focus is on chronic pain and other symptom-based disorders. We seek to understand what patients with pain believe about their pain, and what they seek in their treatment. Our goal is to develop management approaches and interventions that patients want to receive!

​We also focus on helping improve Veterans' well-being after combat deployment. Most Veterans are resilient after combat deployment - our goal is to help all Veterans live their best lives!
Lab Goals
  1. To improve health-related quality of life and well-being. In other words, we want to help people live their best lives.
  2. To understand individuals' goals and beliefs about their health and treatment options.  We believe the best interventions are individualized and meet the needs of the person.
  3. To identify patient's treatment preferences  and develop self-management interventions. We want to understand and implement the best treatment practices for the management of health conditions.
Our team is co-located at the the Division of Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany and the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the Veterans Affairs (VA) New Jersey Healthcare System.
​Lab members in both locations have opportunities to be involved in research being conducted at the University at Albany and also at the VA in NJ. ​

Areas of Research at the University at Albany, State University of New York

Chronic pain treatment options

Chronic pain is a highly prevalent symptom treated in primary care. This condition is much less often treated in non-medical settings. The opioid crisis highlights the importance of identifying alternative treatment options for those with chronic pain. To accomplish this, our lab is currently working on several studies seeking to understand patient behavioral treatment preferences and treatment effectiveness. ​

​​Chronic pain and rural health

We have previously found that individuals with chronic pain in rural settings are interested in receiving additional information on how they can best manage their health. To move toward a program tailored to this need, we are developing a health coaching intervention for individuals living with chronic pain in rural areas. We seek to provide this vulnerable population with greater access to pain management tools within their community. ​

Projects at the War-Related Illness and Injury Study Center

Provider needs assessment

Primary care practitioners play a key role in the development of interdisciplinary treatment environments. To tackle the gap between the high desire for and the low occurrence of integrative care, we conduct needs assessments with providers. These studies hope to uncover providers' perceptions of barriers to integration, and what changes are needed in healthcare systems to better promote integrated care.
Problem-Solving Treatment for Patients with Chronic Pain and Suicide Risk
Patients with chronic pain are at increased risk of suicide - yet few receive mental health treatment. They DO receive treatment for their chronic pain, providing an opportunity to integrate suicide prevention treatment into treatment for pain. We are conducting a clinical trial to determine if problem-solving treatment for chronic pain can reduce risk of suicide.

Symptom Clinic
There is a quality chasm between the care Veterans with Gulf War Illness (a complex condition with chronic fatigue and pain) should receive and the care they do receive. One reason may be that Gulf War Illness is too complex to be treated in primary care. The goal of this clinical trial is to compare care for Veterans with Gulf War Illness delivered out of a specialty clinic to care delivered from primary care. 

Recent activity

Join Our Team

​The Division of Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany is consistently ranked as one of the best counseling psychology programs in the United States. In addition to the training students receive on Dr. McAndrew’s team, students receive training by top faculty in challenging classes and diverse clinical settings.
Our lab is dedicated to helping its members achieve their career goals. To this end we work highly collaboratively and with a great deal of autonomy. We want you to complete your Ph.D. with the tools you need to enter into the next phase of your career!

To accomplish this, students have opportunities to collaborate on manuscript-writing efforts, develop novel interventions, and to take the lead in developing independent projects . We also provide training in grant writing and opportunities to be involved in funded projects.
We are recruiting a doctoral student to join our lab in the Division of Counseling Psychology at the University at Albany. ​
We are also recruiting a fellow in Behavioral Medicine (Clinical or Counseling Psychologist preferred) for the War Related Illness and Injury Study Center (WRIISC) at the Veterans Affairs New Jersey Healthcare System fellowship program. Dr. McAndrew’s laboratory conducts research on Veterans’ views of their health and develops innovative patient-centered behavioral interventions. The incumbent will have opportunities to assist in the development and implementation of clinical interventions, qualitative studies and longitudinal observational studies. The fellow will contribute to ongoing manuscript-writing efforts and take the lead in developing their own manuscripts for submission to peer-reviewed journals. They will also receive training in grant writing and lead their own grant submission. 
The WRIISC uses an integrated and translational approach. Our fellowship program provides a number of educational opportunities including seminars in grant writing, publishing in high impact journals, etc. There are also opportunities to gain additional training or experiences in health education, neuropsychology, physiology, imaging or exercise science. Faculty at the WRIISC have expertise in clinical psychology, behavioral medicine, medically unexplained illness, diabetes, women’s health, exercise science, integrative physiology, neuropsychology, imaging and health services and also have appointments at our academic affiliates, Rutgers University and the University at Albany. Applicants must have graduated from an APA accredited program and internship and be a US citizen. Applicants should send their CV and a cover letter to Lisa McAndrew, Ph.D. at lisa.mcandrew@va.gov.

Testimonials 

"Dr. McAndrew’s lab is the supportive, informative environment that I need to excel in research and my program." - Margeaux Cannon, 3rd year PhD student at UAlbany
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"The lab environment is so warm and supportive, I really feel like it's a perfect environment to learn and get involved in research." - Darren Winograd, 1st year PhD student at UAlbany

Check us out on TWITTER!:    @WRIISC

For information regarding the War Related Illness & Injury Study Center please contact Dr. Lisa McAndrew:
lisa.mcandrew@va.gov 
OR
973-676-1000 x1167
For information about the University at Albany, Division of Counseling Psychology please contact:
lmcandrew@albany.edu 
War-Related Illness and 
Injury Study Center (WRIISC)
385 Tremont Ave.
Mail Stop 129, 11th floor
East Orange, NJ 07018
​University at Albany, State University of New York
1400 Washington Ave.
Albany, NY 12222