Assistant Professor
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
Research Interests
Dr. Lapiz-Bluhm is a registered nurse with a doctoral degree in biomedical sciences (neuroscience) at the University of Nottingham, England under the supervision of Dr. Charles Marsden. Having been raised in the Philippines as well as educated and worked in different parts of the world (Australia, Thailand, Sweden, England, Denmark and the United States), she has observed how stress and trauma transcend social boundaries and affect health. This has influenced her program of science which involves biopsychosocial studies in vulnerable populations. She has had a track record research on animal models for neuropsychiatric disorders, investigating their neurobiological, behavioral, and neurocognitive components in relation to stress. As a faculty at the School of Nursing, she has been engaged in translational clinical research on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as well as education-based and community service-based diversity research. Her main goal is to inform the development of interventions to treat, or even prevent, the negative consequences of trauma exposure among vulnerable individuals. She is currently funded through the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Nurse Faculty Scholars Program to determine cognitive and neuronal markers for the speed of response to cognitive processing therapy among military personnel with PTSD (see: http://tango.uthscsa.edu/strongstar/subs/afinfo.asp?prj=26). She recently received funding from the Nursing Advisory Council to conduct research on the consequences of prenatal maternal stress exposure to a super typhoon.
Selected Publications
Lapiz-Bluhm MD (2014). Impact of stress on prefrontal glutamatergic, monoaminergic and cannabinoid systems. Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience, 18, 45-66. doi: 10.1007/7854_2014_331.
Lapiz-Bluhm MD, Peterson AL (2014). Neurobehavioral mechanisms of traumatic stress on post-traumatic stress disorder. Current Topics in Behavioral Neuroscience, 18, 161-190. doi: 10.1007/7854_2014_307.
Lapiz-Bluhm MD. Braden CJ, Canty-Mitchell J, Breslin ET, Peterson A (2014)> Robert Wood Johnson Foundation nurse faculty scholars program for junior nurse faculty: It takes a village for a successful application. Journal of Nursing Practice Applications and Reviews of Research, 4, 112-122.
Lapiz-Bluhm MD (2012). From rodents to patients: prefrontal cognitive and HPA axis function following trauma exposure Journal for Psychopharmacology, 20:A2
Furr A, Lapiz-Bluhm MD, Morilak DA (2012). 5-HT2A receptors in the orbitofrontal cortex facilitate reversal learning and contribute to the beneficial cognitive effects of chronic citalopram treatment in rats. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 15, 1295-1305. doi: 10.1017/S1461145711001441