Meet Beth Darnall, Ph.D.

“Diversity is bedrock to creativity. Diversity of thought and ideas is what leads to breakthrough and discovery in science.”

Beth Darnall, PhD
Assistant Professor
Anesthesiology & Peri-Operative Medicine

Beth was born and raised in Los Cruces, NM and completed her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Colorado in Boulder. In her post-doctoral training at the Tucson Veterans Affairs Hospital and Johns Hopkins University, Beth treated patients coping with chronic pain, depression, substance abuse, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and post-surgical rehabilitation. That experience honed Beth’s focus on health psychology, and she then joined the faculty at OHSU where she works in the Comprehensive Pain Center as a pain psychologist. In addition to helping her patients improve self-management of their pain, Beth conducts research on how psychology influences the immune system and inflammatory processes. She also studies gender differences in response to stress and treatment of chronic pain, with the goal of improving behavioral treatment for women with pain.

Beth enjoys being on the OHSU faculty because of the beauty of the university and its environment, and also the warm and personable people that make up the OHSU community. She is also appreciative of the support she receives for her women-focused research mission, saying, “There is a wealth of interest in women’s health at OHSU, and I have benefited greatly from the departmental and institutional support.”