Michael A. Hoyt, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist and conducts interdisciplinary research examining how depression develops, is maintained, and can be altered among individuals facing acute and chronic health-related adversity, particularly cancer survivors and their families. His program integrates behavioral science, psychoneuroimmunology, and clinical intervention research to understand the interplay between emotion regulation, stress physiology, sleep disruption, and depressive symptoms. Working across diverse populations including young adult cancer survivors, caregivers, and medically vulnerable communities, his work identifies how psychosocial processes such as goal disruptions, interpersonal factors, and coping style shape depression risk and recovery.
Dr. Hoyt’s work focuses on biological mechanisms linking stress to depression. Using salivary and blood-based biomarkers, his studies demonstrate associations among emotional processing, inflammatory signaling, cortisol dysregulation, fatigue, anhedonia, and sleep disturbance. These mechanistic findings inform development of precision behavioral interventions targeting depression-relevant pathways. He developed Goal-Focused Emotion Regulation Therapy (GET) which has shown promising effects on depressive symptoms, sleep quality, and biobehavioral regulation, including inflammatory and cortisol responses, in randomized trials.
Dr. Hoyt’s program advances an integrated biobehavioral understanding of depression with direct clinical application. His work elucidates mechanisms of vulnerability and resilience, and works to translate this knowledge into scalable interventions aimed at reducing depressive burden, improving health equity, and enhancing long-term cancer survivorship outcomes.