What began as a personal journey following her grandfather's diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease in the 1980s has taken flight into a career built on researching dementia and helping treat patients with chronic pain. Stephanie Johnson now balances clinical work with research at the medical center -- an opportunity that helps keep her work varied and rewarding.

Johnson's personal interest in Alzheimer's disease led her to pursue graduate work in dementia at Catholic University of America and a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institute on Aging where she honed her specialty in cognitive neuroscience.

"I had very personal reasons for pursuing work in this field," said Johnson, a clinical associate in psychiatry and behavioral sciences. "It's extremely rewarding to be able to contribute to a research field that holds such interest for me and to be able to help and support patients in a clinical setting."

Johnson moved to North Carolina several years ago to pursue research opportunities at Duke, a site well known for academic research in dementia, cognitive decline and the genetics of disease.

She spends half of her time engaged in clinical care at the Chronic Pain Management program and the rest of her time as a research associate with the Alzheimer's Disease Research Center. There, she is focused on a pilot study examining how stress and stressful life events can have an impact on cognitive changes in the brain that may ultimately lead to Alzheimer's disease, she said.

"I have a very strong interest in examining environmental factors and the genetic basis of disease in African Americans," she added. "The health disparities we see between minority and majority populations lead to chronic diseases which can have a significant economic impact on a community.

"I think the answer may lie somewhere between better educating health care providers and community health educators of how to approach minority populations more effectively, and in new approaches to teaching African American and Latino patients about lifestyle factors they can control to reduce their chances for developing chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity."

Johnson said it is important to increase minority participation in clinical research studies. She said by working with study recruiters to understand the historical obstacles to minority participation, the numbers of participants will grow.

"We know that African Americans have the highest rates of Alzheimer's disease in the U.S., but we aren't able to fully explore why that is the case and, therefore, we're not creating culturally sensitive methods of treating this population," Johnson said.

"We see it in the Latino American community as well. It's a complex problem that needs to be addressed on many levels to really get at what the problems are and to develop strategies to address those issues."

In the Chronic Pain Management program, Johnson conducts behavioral and cognitive assessments of individuals with pain. Her group teaches patients to deal with pain by using muscle relaxation techniques.

"People can effectively control many types of chronic pain but need to learn the right techniques to know how to do it correctly," she said. "People coming into this program have run the gamut looking for answers in how best to treat their pain. Many have concurrent mental health issues that need to be addressed to treat them fully.

"I see a lot of elderly patients with multiple conditions, many of whom might have slipped through the system without a full diagnosis. My cognitive training allows me to pick up on cues that might be missed by other care providers -- such as someone who might be showing early signs of dementia."

Johnson, who is originally from Milwaukee, enjoys the arts, traveling and exploring other cultures. Recently, she met with other scholars with expertise in dementia while traveling in South Africa. The most rewarding part of her work, she says, comes from offering help and support to her patients.

"We may not have a cure for their pain, but we offer them something that may improve their quality of life."