Jessica R. Molinaro, MD

Dr. Molinaro completed undergraduate education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and majored in Psychology and Italian. She completed medical school, followed by a psychiatry residency and a consultation-liaison psychiatry fellowship at the Medical College of Wisconsin (MCW) in Milwaukee, WI.

During residency and fellowship, she had a particular interest in psycho-oncology. Her most recent research study explored the impact of a psycho-oncology intervention on distress and depression in cancer patients. Distress and depression are highly prevalent among cancer patients and are associated with adverse outcomes. The study showed that consultation-liaison based outpatient psycho-oncology services were associated with significant and clinically meaningful reductions in distress and depression. These reductions in distress and depression were not significantly associated with provider type, intervention or timing of diagnosis, supporting their use in the general oncology population. The study also demonstrated the potential for benefit of these psycho-oncology services later in survivorship, which is a particularly vulnerable phase in the cancer care trajectory where distress is often under-recognized and undertreated.